Twilight Town Code 384
by Meeksu
Summary: Twilight Town, the newest virtual reality game on the shelves. Roxas simply couldn't resist when his friend insisted he try it, but what he finds in the virtual world takes quite a dramatic effect on his real life, and that's when the real game begins.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters, or the places or...you know, all the usual stuff that will save me from any form of court case.

Alrighties! Prologue! I don't usually do prologues, but I thought I would for this one It's almost 2am now, and I should be sleeping, since I have to wake up early tomorrow...But my favourite song just came on, so I think I can manage to post this (Empty Room by Marjorie Fair + Shimmer by Fuel equals love. Don't know why, but I'm addicted to them right now...). I've already got 3 chapters of this fic done so far, since I'm enjoying writing it! So hopefully updates won't be as scarce as my other Fruits Basket fanfiction...It all depends on the reviews, I guess! So enjoy, and don't forget to hit that review button

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**Twilight Town Code 384**

Prologue

_Welcome to Twilight Town_

Have you ever had one of those days that just drag on forever? Like the gears in the clock seize and the hands linger on 2:30pm for the whole afternoon? Today was one of those unfortunately elongated days.

It was nearing the end of the year now, and everyone was already in holiday mode, despite the week of exams we had to suffer through once our week of classes was over.

"Hey, Roxas" a whisper hissed to my left. Why Pence was whispering was beyond me, since the rest of the class had given up hiding the fact that they were talking a long time ago, and it seemed the teacher was too fatigued to bother trying to hush them.

"Yeah?" I replied in the same low tone, darting my eyes to where he sat across the isle. It was exam practice, so we had been separated from our usual seating arrangements, into individual spacing.

"You heard about that new game?" Pence continued, still looking like he'd be sprung for detention at any second.

"No. What's it called?"

"Twilight Town"

Pence loved games. Loved them more than life itself, I was willing to bet. His build clearly showed it; he was podgy and round-faced. He knew all the game lingo and constantly used it in conversations, despite the fact that barely any of us knew what he was talking about.

"Never heard of it. Any good?" I knew a little about online gaming. Role play games, swords, spells, currency. But next to Pence I was nothing.

"Virtual reality, dude. Best out so far. Today's Friday, right? I'll bring it over this arvo. You can borrow it for the weekend"

"Yeah, sure" I agreed, giving an appreciative smile.

"Class, you may now leave. I hope that by Monday you have composed yourselves enough to concentrate on study for your exams!" our teacher boomed from the front, her voice accented with British background. Everyone bustled from the room, glad to be done with such an unproductive lesson.

There was only one class left for today, and that was calculus. Why I'd taken this class still eluded me. It was the most ridiculously frustrating lesson I'd ever had to sit through. Most of the time, sitting was all I did in it. My friend Olette, however, was a wiz at all things numbers. She was like the Hermione Granger of our grade.

"Roxas" she whispered out of the corner of her mouth, "are you actually doing anything? Or just staring at the board?"

"Staring" I droned, not bothering to shift my eyes to look at her.

She made a huffing noise and pulled my book towards her. She scrawled down the page numbers we were working on, accompanied by a small note reading: 'study these or you'll be unemployed for the rest of your life'.

It was slightly embarrassing to say I didn't have a job. Most of my friends did, even Pence. How he found the time between levelling his characters to serve coffee at Starbucks, was beyond me.

The final bell rang, and the class eagerly exited the room. All except Olette, who often hung back to talk to the teacher about upcoming studies. Our Calculus teacher was fresh from university. Estimated to be about 22; no one had ever had the courage to ask him. His sandy blonde hair was neatly messy and held in place with just enough gel. He wore glasses over his sapphire coloured eyes. Most of the girls in my class loved him, so it wasn't hard to tell why they were so wrapped in the subject. I slung my bag over my shoulder and left the room. I would have waited for her, but we walked separate ways home, and only god knows how long she'd be talking to our teacher for.

Pence caught me on my way out the front gates.

"There you are!" he shouted, waving one of his stubby hands in the air.

I waved back and came to a standstill to wait for him. He waddled over and we began the walk to his house. He only lived down the street from me, so it didn't take long for us to arrive at my front door, carting three boxes of what I could only assume was related to the game he'd mentioned. We carried the boxes upstairs to my room and placed them in front of my computer.

"Alright" Pence began, opening the first box. I watched as he tugged cord after cord from the inside of the cardboard package and plugged them into sockets I didn't even know my computer had. After watching in awe for at least ten minutes, I excused myself from the room to grab us some drinks. When I returned, the assembling was almost done. Several shiny objects made of cloth lay next to my computer screen, along with some wired glasses. I gaped for a moment, perplexed by the arrangement.

"What's all this do?" I asked with amusement, moving towards my desk.

"I'll show you in a minute, just have to get all of this installed onto you PC. Those things there are sensors. Don't touch them"

I pulled my outstretched hand away from the small black devices linked from my wall to the computer tower. I instead took to sipping my Coke and watching Pence fiddle around with some CD's. Before long we were ready to go. Pence seemed quite pleased with himself. He fitted the cloth around my forearms, ankles, neck, stomach and slipped gloves onto my hands before pressing the glasses to my eyes. He snapped two wires together at the back of my head, and the shades almost suctioned onto my face. I gasped in shock as a selection screen flashed before my eyes.

"See anything?" he asked, adjusting something on my back

"Yeah. It's asking me to select a name"

"You've got voice sensors on those glasses. 100 accurate. Just say a name you want, and then select"

"Uh…ok…Destiny13...select"

Pence quickly pushed something small and cold into my ears, from which an automated voice informed me the selection was successfully, and that I had to wait for something to load.

"'Destiny13'? Hah, dude, where do you come up with these things?" Pence laughed mockingly.

I glowered in my defence, but quickly snapped to attention when music began playing in my ears.

'_Please select a class'_ a soothing voice instructed me, showing me a list.

"Mystic" I replied, finding it the most interesting of the list.

A landscape suddenly popped into view, and there stood an image of me, holding what looked like a staff.

"Whoa. What the hell?" I muttered, unable to do anything more than stare.

"Pretty good, huh? You can choose to look like yourself, or someone else in this game. See the buttons to the left? The sensors on your wall will pick up your movement. Just press them to select stuff you can't use your voice for."

I must have looked weird, standing in the middle of my room, pressing buttons in mid-air that weren't actually there.

In the end, I wound up with a character that looked like me, wearing a light blue cloak rimmed with patterns, and holding a staff. I added some swirl tattoos under my eyes to add effect, and pressed 'done'.

"_Welcome to Twilight Town."_ the same soothing voice resonated in my ears. The screen suddenly turned 3D, and Twilight Town swam into view.

"Yo, Rox, I'm heading home" I heard Pence's voice drift through the music,

"Oh, ok." I replied briefly, turning my head to look at him, though all I could see was the town; the rest of my room felt very far away from behind my glasses.

"If you like the game, we can go get it from the store on Monday afternoon. I'm sure your folks wont mind forking out a bit of money. They've got enough!" he laughed.

I gave a small chuckle in reply and nodded,

"Alright, sounds good. I'll seeya later!"

I vaguely heard his footsteps leave the room, before my senses were pulled back into the game. The town was huge from where I stood. People raced around everywhere. Some sporting fashionable clothing and dangerous weapons, while others looked quite plain and ordinary. I could hear people talking to each other about items and quests; making deals with merchants; haggling others for weapons. It felt like I'd just stepped into another town, rather than a video game. A town where everyone loved cosplay.

"Roxas!" I heard a yell from downstairs, even through the babbling of the other players. It was Olette.

At this point, it occurred to me that I had no idea how to remove any of the things attached to me. Lucky for me, Olette was never one to wait for an invitation to walk into your room. There had been more than several occasions where I'd been getting changed and she had invited herself up. Although it never seemed to bother her. She was more like a sister to me, than a friend.

"What the HELL is all that?" I heard her remark from the door.

"Game. Don't know how to get it off…" I whispered, conscious of people watching me in-game, now.

"_You just press the buttons on the side of your shades" _a familiar face appeared to my right, and they motioned towards their eyes. I lifted my hands, gave a grateful nod, and pressed hard on the small bumps near my temples. The cords around the back of my head released, and the glasses fell into my palms. I sighed in relief.

"How'd you do that?" I heard Olette ask to my left.

"Someone just told me how to. The glasses have voice sensors, so they must have heard me…"

"Wow. Looks pretty high tech to me. What's it called again?" She looked impressed. Which was odd for Olette, since she usually detested video games.

"Twilight Town" I replied, tugging at the buttons on my ankle bands. She was thoughtfully silent for a moment.

"So I guess you wouldn't want to join me for ice-cream this afternoon?" she sounded slightly dejected at the thought of being replaced by a game. We almost always got ice-cream on a Friday afternoon. It had become a bit of a routine over the past two or so years.

"Of course I would!" I smiled, tugging harder at the cloth around my neck. She smiled back and hurried forward to help me untangle myself from the hardware.

"For a moment there I thought you were going to pull a Pence, and preference a game over a social event!" she laughed

"Haha, nah. It's just a game" I smirked, stepping over the last of the wires and towards my door.

"Come on, let's go!"

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Aaaand that's all for the prologue, folks! Boring, yet essential information about the game, pretty much. But hopefully it wasn't too boring for any of you! I didn't get to edit it 100 percent, since I'm so tired I'd probably miss any errors anyway. Anywho, see that review button? Free cookies for you if you review! -waves cookies around- so get writting! And thank you for reading 

Ciao for now! -wave-


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I don't own it.

Chapter one! Yay. Please note that reading the prologue is essential to understand this chapter Also, I'll add in here why this fiction is rated M: There's swearing, and sexual references -gasp-. Also, for those who did not know, this is a pairing fic with Roxas and Riku. So if you don't like the pairing, you may not want to continue reading (although I'd like you to!). But for those of you who can deal with it- enjoy chapter one!

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**Chapter One**

_Newbie_

I woke up the next morning to my cell phone ringing. Sitting, I grudgingly flipped it open and pushed the receiver to my ear.

"Hello?" I croaked, my voice cracking as I tried to raise it in question.

"Morning Roxas!" a cheerful voice blasted into my ear like a fog horn from the other end of the line,

"Oh, hey, Pence. What's up?" I almost chocked, shocked by the volume. I Shifted the phone to my other ear, as I'd gone temporarily deaf in my left.

"Wondering how you liked the new game?" he questioned, I could almost see the smile lighting his face.

"Oh, yeah, it's great. No idea what I'm supposed to do, though.."

The sleep was starting to wear off after listening to Pence ramble about game play for at least half an hour. And by then I was pretty confident I understood most of what I had to do.

"I'll see if I can borrow Hayner's stuff and log in to help you" Pence finally said, after making sure I knew every detail of the battle system.

"Alright…so I log in now, then?" I asked, glancing over at my computer desk where the wires still lay in a jumble.

"Yeah, sure thing. I'll meet ya near the item shop!" and with that he hung up. I shook the rest of the clouds from my head and staggered over to my computer. Once I was online and logged in, I ambled around for a moment, searching for the item store. I eventually found it; a small building decorated with colourful objects. I stood there for a moment, wondering when breakfast would be a good idea. It didn't take long before a short, jolly looking character strode up to me,

"Hey, it's me" came Pence's voice.

"Oh, hi" I smiled. My voice still implied I was drowsy, but Pence didn't seem to notice, and pointed towards an alleyway.

"We're headed to the train station. I'll take you to Destiny Island. Good place for newbies" he explained, beginning to walk before I could even register what he'd said. I followed compliantly.

The train station was huge. Or so I thought. There were so many people it almost hurt my eyes. Colours dashing past sooner than I could realise it was a player. We lined up in front of one of the trains that was decorated with images of palm trees and golden beaches, reading: 'Destiny Island'.

"_Train to- Destiny Island- leaving soon from -Station Three"._

My ears rang with the announcement from a speaker situated above our heads. Pence gave an irritated sigh, shoving the player in front of him forward. The line piled into the train, and I was pushed forward before the doors slammed closed. Pence and I took a seat between a pink-haired girl that looked more suited for a rock concert than a game, and a chubby boy in silver armour. The train pulled smoothly from the station and slid fluidly along the tracks, it felt like we weren't even moving, and I would have assumed this to be true the whole trip had the scenery not been dashing past us at such alarming speeds. Before long, we'd come to a halt beside an elevated platform, sporting a sturdy palm tree. Everybody promptly pushed their way off the train and spread out across the expansive beaches. Pence had to drag me by the collar of my cloak to get me through the doors before they closed.

"Welcome to Destiny Island!" he announced, stepping down onto the sand. It looked very much like a real beach. The graphics were flawless.

"Where to?" I asked absentmindedly, still trying to take everything in.

"Follow me" he began running across the beach now, dodging people like hurdles. I tailed along behind him.

We climbed a few platforms and onto a windy balcony encircling a tree.

"This is the tree house. Portal to a monster field that's good for beginners- just around this corner…" he trailed off as we rounded the bend, and I looked at him, waiting for the end of the sentence.

"Great" he muttered, taking a step back, "Rox- I mean, Destiny, run now if you don't want a nasty shock from the hardware."

"What?"

"When you die, those things strapped to you will give you a jolt. Go go."

I turned to follow his line of vision.

A player in a long black trench coat was leaning on the fencing around the balcony, his back to us. His layered, silver hair hung freely to his shoulder blades, spiking out at random lengths on the way down.

"Run, man!" I heard Pence repeat, edging away. When he saw I wasn't moving, he turned on his heels and saved his own hide. At the sound of the shouting, the player in front of me turned around. His expression was stern, but his eyes were like an ocean. The colour almost stunned me. He watched me for a moment, as if considering something. I felt frozen to the spot, and I had no idea why.

"Can I help you?" his voice was deep. It was quite intimidating.

"Um…no, my friend just told me to run…I'm not sure why."

"I tend to have that effect on people" the silver haired teen replied, his face still void of expression. I eyed him carefully, my stance rigid.

_Just a game,_ I kept thinking to myself. _Just a game_.

"What's your name?" the stranger finally broke the uneasy silence that had fallen between us

"Rox- I mean, Destiny13" I replied, correcting myself.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Darkness. I'm well known around here for my Player Killing skills. That's probably why your friend ran away. You get quite a nasty shock if you die."

I suddenly felt very vulnerable; standing in front of a renowned assassin with nothing more than the skills to walk and run. Barely that.

"Oh, I see…"

"Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you" Darkness laughed, a sound that just didn't seem normal coming from someone with a demeanour such as his. But the noise relaxed my slightly wobbly nerves.

"So how long have you been playing for?" I asked, taking a stab at conversation.

"Playing?" he looked confused for a moment, "…I've been here for at least a month"

I tilted my head. But he'd given me an answer, despite the abnormality of it.

"Wow. And how old are you?" I pressed, trying to keep things flowing. It kept me from worrying about my virtual life's safety.

"I'm seventeen" he replied, a smile creeping to his lips now, "and you?"

"Sixteen" I answered, watching his eyes incessantly. I had to wonder briefly if they were the same beyond the boundaries of the virtual world.

He nodded fleetingly, before lifting his head to look past me.

"Yo!" I heard a call from behind me, and turned to look for the source.

"Hey Cal" Darkness called back, lifting his hand to wave. I almost instantly recognised the face.

The same person who'd helped me out the other day with getting my glasses off.

"Hey" I smiled, nodding in greeting.

"If it isn't the little newb I ran into yesterday!" he looked gleeful.

"You know each other?" Dark queried

"Not really" the newcomer's appearance was slightly more extravagant than his friend's. He wore a black, puffy-material suit that was decorated with yellow straps and white trims. But aside from all the frivolous clothing, he looked very much the same as he did in real life.

"Sora?" I attempted, tossing names over in my head

"Yup! But I'm 'Callibur' here" the brunette's smile was unwavering as he spoke. His blue eyes were just as vivid as they were when I passed him in school. The kind of eyes you can't help but stare at. Much like his friend's. I turned my vision back to Dark, who was now visibly a lot more at ease.

"So, why are you still alive?" Callibur questioned, looking sincerely confused.

"I- what?"

"Dark kills strangers on sighting. Yet you're still standing," he turned to his friend with a puzzled expression, "what's the story?"

"Don't feel like killing people today. I came here to relax." the boy's ocean coloured eyes were as deep as the Pacific; never moving with the sentiments that washed over his face. But it was only a game. I had to frequently remind myself of this fact as I absorbed myself into the atmosphere. It felt so much like I was there, that it almost truly frightened me.  
"Well that's a new story, I must say. Usually you just wear your weapons out and forget to repair them. You're not going soft on me now, are you?" Sora grinned his trademark grin, the whole front row of his pearly whites sparkling.

Dark sneered in response and turned his back on both of us,

"Not a chance",

"Good, let's get a move on then! If I don't hit level fifty five by midnight, I want compensation!" Sora demanded, although his eyes were still lit with a smile.

Darkness nodded in what he would never admit as defeat, and turned back to face the conversation,  
"Alright then. But I can't help you level all the time. You have to learn to survive on your own"

Callibur pulled a sulky expression at this, his bottom lip pouting.

"You mean you're leaving me?!" he mocked betrayal, his eyes widening.

Dark merely rolled his eyes.

"It was nice meeting you, Destiny," his bright aquamarine orbs were back on me again, watching me intently. I almost forgot to respond, still adjusting to reacting to my online name.

I could only manage a nod for a moment, before I finally found my vocabulary,

"You too, Dark" I smiled, lost out at sea once again.

Sora patted a hand on my back, although I felt nothing due to the fact I had no hardware attached to that area of my body. I continued to smile until they both disappeared in flashes of white light, leaving specks of what looked like shimmering sand to float to the ground behind them.

I stood there, simply staring for a moment. It wasn't until I heard the distant sound of a door slamming that the eminent existence of reality pulled my feet back to the carpet on my bedroom floor. I quickly selected the 'log out' button with a frantic waving of my left hand, and tore the game from my arms and legs. I sighed as I heard the familiar sounds of dad's footsteps sauntering towards the stairs, heavy with the effects of the massive amounts of alcohol he had probably consumed.

"Heeey, Roxas?" his slurred voice carried up the staircase, meeting me halfway down the hall.

"Yeah, I'm here, dad" I answered, stopping at the top of the stairs to assess the damage, "where have you been?"

"Just- out with friends…game's on…you know? Bloody fucking assholes completely KILLED our team. Fucking…bloody…" his hands eventually found the stair's railings, and he stabilised himself on them before continuing to curse about a lost match. I sighed and descended the stairway. This was a common occurrence at our house. My dad always went out, almost every second day of the week, and drunk himself stupid with all of his work buddies. How they never got fired for turning up with hangovers, I'll never know. But I was always the one to take care of him when he got back. It wasn't so much of a difficulty anymore, now that the first four years had created a monotonous routine for me to stick to.

"Come on, dad, come and sit down for a while," I said in a low tone, as to not hurt his head. I placed his arm over my shoulders and led him towards the couch in the living room. Once he was safely off his feet, I continued into the kitchen to fetch the painkillers and water.

"Take two of these, and drink this. All of it, if you even want a hope of waking up tomorrow." I explained in a calm tone, like I did every other night. He never seemed to notice my broken record speech. And for that I was glad.

"Thanks Roxy, you're such a responsible boy. I'd be-" he paused to gulp down both the pills, exhaling loudly when he'd downed the entire glass of water, "-completely…lost without you."

His eyes almost rolled into the back of his head as we swayed briefly on the cushions.

"Lay down, dad" I instructed, retrieving a blanket from the linen closet only a few paces to my left. He obeyed placidly, closing his eyes as soon as his head hit the pillows. I threw the old light blue blanket over his now limp form, setting another tube of pills on the coffee table for the hangover that was sure to hit him hard in the morning.

"'Night, dad" I whispered, turning to ascend the stairs. There was no reply, he was dead to the world by this point.

I closed the door to my room, removed my shirt, and slouched towards my bed. Mum wasn't going to be happy when she got home. She never was. I'd gotten use to that detail, it was just the fact they woke me up with their arguing early in the morning, that got my temper going. I hit the light switch on my way to bed, stumbled on a pile of books, entangled myself in the wires running from my TV, and almost lost my head to the small model wooden sword I'd hung from my ceiling fan, before finally finding the covers of my doona. I'd have to clean my room eventually. But tomorrow didn't look hopeful, and the week following that was too far away to be making any concrete plans…

With that in mind, I found it much easier to drift off into a somewhat peaceful slumber, only startling awake once when the sound of breaking glass managed to penetrate my dreams. But the shock didn't last long, and I was back in my imagination, snoozing away the early hours of the morning.

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Theeere we goes. Please review! Also, while I'm here, I have a book to suggest to you all! If you havn't already read it, I strongly urge you to do so: Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer. My favourite series of books! So quickly, run to the store now and buy it!! 

Anyway, I'm off to try and fix my computer. It's trying to commit suicide on me. Again.

Until next time I update! -wave-


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** Don't own it.

Hi again. Here's chapter two! And it's raining cats and dogs where I am right now! It's great! Nothing much to rant about at the moment...so I'll leave you to your reading! Please don't forget to review!

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Chapter Two

_The effects of drowning_

I was beginning to realise why Pence was so addicted to games. After being woken for the fourth time that morning at five, I hadn't bothered to have another shot at sleeping.

I now stood at the Twilight Town Train Station and the only thing I could manage to do was gape at it's staggering size. The fact that a constant wave of people filtered through the front doors only added to it all.

"Fancy seeing you here this early!" Sora's voice easily registered through the rest of the crowd's drone of conversation. I turned around to see him smiling happily back at me.

"Morning" I greeted, reaching up to shift the band on my neck so it was a little looser.

"Why are you up so early?" the boy's crystal blue eyes were as bright as always, still fixed on my face patiently

"Couldn't sleep" I replied shortly, trying to make my lips curl upwards. My fatigued stopped them.

"Ohhh. That's no good. I'm just checking up on some friends- they called me and told me to log on. Have to help when I can!" he grinned now, resting his hands on the back of his head.

I nodded a few times, too drowsy to manage much more. It was at this point that two characters appeared in my peripheral vision, striding meaningfully towards us.

"Yo, Cal!!" one shouted. The voice shocked me slightly. The character's appearance was that of a female, but the voice was clearly male.

"Hey, Flare. Hey, Geyser!" Callibur waved enthusiastically at them both as they came to a stand still at his side. Flare had long, spiky, flaming red hair, contrasted by her shocking green eyes. She was much taller than Sora and wore a patterned purple cloak. It was tight fit to her upper body, but relaxed into a flow around her knees. Her smile was almost menacing. The male standing beside her, Geyser, also wore a cloak, but it was undone and navy blue. Underneath he wore what looked like velvet black pants, tied to his hips with a white rope. His chest was bare and tattooed with light blue swirls that twisted their way down from his collar bone. His light blonde hair hung around his face, shortening at the back of his head. He looked a little less sinister than his friend, which made me feel somewhat safer.

"Guys, meet Destiny13. He's new" Sora waved a hand in my direction, and both turned to stare at me. There was an uncomfortable few seconds where that was all they did, before both reached out their hands in greeting. I shook both in turn and smiled.

"Nice to meet ya, Destiny. Good luck with your training!" Flare smirked, and once again I was shocked by the masculinity of her voice.

"Awesome name" Geyser grinned, chuckling slightly.

"Alright guys, let's get this training over with so I can go back to sleep" Sora piped up, turning on his heels. Both promptly followed after him, shouting goodbyes over their shoulders.

I waved until they disappeared into the ever growing crowd.

I was left to wander around at a steady pace, following the crowd towards the trains banked at their stations. It wasn't until the players started getting impatiently violent towards the lines did I begin to worry.

"Hurry up!" I heard a shout from behind me, and a stumpy character pushed his way forward, past a lanky male and very agitated female. I tried to shift to the side, but was caught fair in the upper arm as he tried to bowl past me. I yelped in shock as we both fell sideways into a nearby train, my screen turning quickly to it's side, although my body remained upright. I heard him mutter curses as he hobbled towards a seat. As my screen righted itself, I began to regain my bearings. But by the time I registered what was happening, the doors had already locked shut, and the train was coasting along at lightning speed.

I was shoved out onto a platform when we finally arrived, instantly lost as I gazed around at the unfamiliar surroundings. I heard the train shudder to a crawling start behind me, but by the time I'd turned around it was gone. And the moment I realised this, I immediately wished it would come back. Players were running everywhere, shouting- some screaming- and flinging spells and weapons in all directions.

Eyes wide, my first reaction was to look for familiar faces. Red hair, black hair, blue hair, silver hair. And that's when I saw him. He dashed swiftly across the open space in front of a small café, and straight up the wall of a neighbouring building. I followed his movements, pausing when my eyes met a sign reading 'Traverse Town', halfway up the wall. At least I had a name to put with the location now.

"Get him!" came a shout from the crowd grouping below. A wave of elements followed the silver haired teen up the building. Fire, water, ice, electricity, all climbing after him. The fire smashed into the brick of the walls, sending rubble pouring down over the awaiting audience. Once the cloaked boy reached the flat roof of the construction he wheeled around to face the congregation. They all seemed to pause, a wave of anticipation almost visibly passing through them. The predator rose his hands towards the starry sky, and the gathering almost instantly realised what was coming for them.

"Area of Effect." I heard a whisper at my side. I snapped my head sideways to see a girl in a simple white dress standing there with a pleasant smile on her face.

"Watch" she giggled, pointing.

I turned back just in time to see a black hole open above the players. Several screamed, shouting something too fast for me to catch. They all began to run, but a translucent screen bounced them back, blocking their escape. The rest following was almost instant. Blades appeared at all angles of the gathered mass of players. The only thing I caught after that was a chorus of loud screams and a pile of dead bodies. The ones left alive drew their weapons, and Darkness threw himself off the building. I caught a gasp before it escaped my lips, and watched in distress as he carved up the survivors. Now that he was at such close proximity I could see his face. Anger was the most prominent emotion present, and it burned in his teal eyes. Something about his mien stung my insides and churned my stomach. Suddenly the fear of dying wasn't the most overweighing feeling holding me. I turned back around, but to my surprise the girl once standing there was gone.

Before I had a chance to turn back around, my whole body seized up. The sound of steady breathing rang in my ears like a soft sea breeze, but with the smoulder of it's salt burning an open wound. I couldn't move.

"You" Dark's voice whispered, and I felt the blood drain from my face.

"You just don't know when to run, do you?"

I turned. Probably the stupidest thing to do. But I'd never been good with timing. I was now face to face with his ocean-filled eyes, their waves swallowing me whole and dragging me under. But the waves were angry this time, finally touched by the expression on his face.

I gulped. I couldn't talk, I couldn't move, and I clenched my eyes closed, waiting for the inevitable zap from the hardware. But when nothing came, I grudgingly popped my right eye open. He was still only inches from my face, staring at me, sneer still present. Both my eyes open, they darted over his face, searching for something, anything that might remind me I was still only in a game. But my touch with reality was momentarily lost.

His face contorted further into a leer, before relaxing completely. The light drained from his eyes and his stance slumped. I threw my arms out instinctively as he swayed on his feet.

"Dark…Dark, are you ok?" I breathed, nerves still frayed. I lowered myself to my knees as he sunk to his.

"What's the matter?" I continued, hesitantly placing a hand on his shoulder.

He lifted his head to look at me, a sense of fear so genuine it left me dumfounded, washing over his features. I stared at him, waiting.

"Don't let him take me" he murmured, his breathing hitching in his throat. I continued to stare, nonplussed. Before I could question him further a white light shot up around him, sending me stumbling backwards.

"_Darkness has logged out"_ a small voice chimed in my ears. I got to my feet steadily, eyes still fixed on the spot Dark had once been. I couldn't quite wrap my head around what had just happened.

"_Don't let him take me"_? Someone that strong couldn't possibly be afraid of someone in-game taking him down. And surely a zap from the hardware wouldn't cause such real fear to consume someone's eyes.

"Hey! Destiny!" what was obviously Pence's voice rang in my ears, but I didn't move.

"What's happening? I heard that same guy from yesterday was on a killing spree here. Wanted to watch…You there?"

I reluctantly tore my eyes from the position they'd been stuck in for almost a minute now, to look at my jolly-faced friend.

"Dude, you look like you've just gotten news of your mother dying or something." he snorted

I shook my head, forcing a smile onto my lips. It seemed to work, and Pence smiled back, convinced.

"Yeah, he was here. Just logged out…" I muttered,

"He didn't kill you?" Pence asked, looking perplexed

"No."

"That's the second time in a row. I really don't get it. What, are you his friend or something?"

"I don't think so" I replied, although the fact I hadn't been electrocuted yet was just as puzzling to me.

Pence was silent for a moment, obviously still trying to process everything in his head.

"Well, I guess it can only be a good thing you're still alive," he smiled, before letting an impressed whistle slip through his teeth, "Look at the damage that guy did. I wouldn't be surprised if half of them fainted from the surge. Hardware's still in development- it SAYS not to use it if you can't handle too much of a zap, but some people just don't listen. Oh, speaking of hardware, did you hear?" he looked at me expectantly, as if I was supposed to already know.

"…What?" I asked after a short pause, in which I had tried to look thoughtful.

"They're bringing out a kind of suit for this game. Like, a whole-body thing. It's got all the upgrades, but this way, you'll be able to feel everything. Freedom of movement will be upgraded, too. So you'll be able to do ANYTHING you want! I could tap you on the shoulder, and you'd be able to feel it. Isnt that awesome?" he looked absolutely thrilled, and I tried to mimic his enthusiasm. But the thought of being able to FEEL what I'd just seen happen to at least fifty people made my stomach twist into a sickening amount of knots.

"Yeah, awesome" I smiled.

"You can check it out on the forums if you want. All the info is there. Not very expensive, either. Must mean it's a necessary upgrade."

I nodded again, not wanting to entice anymore technical talk.

"Well, I'm off to train- I'd love to help you level and all, but I need to catch up to Hayner while he can't log in" he grinned

"Alright, I think I might log out now, anyway" I replied. The upheaval in my head was still raging on, making it almost impossible for me to concentrate on anything anymore.

"Alright, man. I'll seeya later, then!" Pence gave a short wave before disappearing through a portal. I waved briefly, selected the log out button and removed the straps from my body. I placed the shades down with a sigh. Although I knew nothing about the technical mumbo-jumbo Pence usually babbled about, it did spark a little interest in me. I logged onto Twilight Town's main webpage and began to browse the forums. Information on the new body suit was everywhere, so I didn't have to bother with the search function. I clicked open one of the threads and skimmed through it.

"_The new body suite looks great! This means it will be even more life-like inside the game. You'll be able to feel everything, and move however you want, and your character will respond! I almost DIED of happiness when I heard about this! That means I can glomp people in-game! God I love virtual reality."_

This continued for most of the threads; people's long-winded chatter of the new hardware. At least it wasn't all too mind-bogglingly technical like Pence always made it sound. But nonetheless, his explanations were more informative. It felt like I was simply reading fan mail and thrilled reviews rather than details on the product, on the forums. Just as I was about to hit the shut down button on my computer, a small message sprung up in the bottom right hand corner of my screen.

"You have mail" a female's voice chimed pleasantly, and I clicked the 'read' option.

It was from Pence:

"_Yo, Roxas!_

_Tomorrow- after school- I'm taking you to the game store, and we're buying you Twilight Town. I need my stuff back so Hayner doesn't kill me for destroying his bandwidth. You have enough money, right?"_

I smiled to myself. The thought of buying something new, and something I wanted always made a twinge of excitement flood my stomach. I guessed this was the same for all people, and that I wasn't just a materialistic bastard.

I clicked 'reply' quickly:

"_Yeah, I got enough. I'll seeya tomorrow!" _

Sent.

I turned the computer off, figuring now would be a good enough time as any to get breakfast.

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That's all for chapter 2. It had been sitting on my pc for a while, but I kept forgetting to post it. But hazah, I finally remembered! Pleeeease review!! 'Til next time! -wave- 


	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** I STILL don't own it. But, even if I do say so myself, I wouldn't mind owning a game like Twilight Town...

Alrighties, so I finally have something to ramble about: motorbikes! I only just learned how to ride one on Saturday. My long lost uncle (not really, I just havn't seen him in like...13 years...) owns a property about 4 hours out of town, and we went there for the weekened! So I got to ride around his 100 acres or so! So many rocks and ditches...but so fun! Anyway, here's chapter 3! I hope you all like it! Thanks to all those who reviewed! Appreciate it lotsly! Enjoy

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Chapter Three

_Ice_

I hurriedly finished wrapping up the jumble of cords, praying I'd put them in the right boxes. I wasn't going to cart the thee large, bulky packages to school, of course, what kind of an idiot did Pence take me for? I lugged the three boxes to the foot of the stairs, intent on picking them up after class to deliver to Pence's.

It was the last week of school, and all I could hear was talk of exams as I strolled through the school's front gates; whining; complaining of short notice; lack of intelligence to pass their maths. I, myself, had quite a good track record with exams, even though I never studied for them. None of my friends could seem to wrap their heads around how I wasn't failing.

"ROXAS!" I heard a shout from across the school yard, and Olette came jogging toward me.

"Morning" I smiled as she approached me, looking past her briefly to check if Hayner or Pence were following.

"Come on, we have calculus first up, and I need to see the teacher about the exams before class starts" she said feverishly.

I sighed, not even having time to answer as she took off again. I followed along behind.

The halls were like a death zone. If you tripped even once, you'd get sucked under the crowd and mercilessly trampled. I was under the impression that a few had already suffered this fate. I edged my way in after Olette, and we weaved our way through the mass of people. My eyes darted left and right, constantly on guard for anything that might trip me up and pull me under. Olette was getting further and further ahead of me, and I had to forcefully push my way past a few of the other students to keep up with her. I kept my eyes fixed on her russet hair, using it as a guide. It wasn't until another head of hair appeared in my peripheral, did my set course swing violently off mark. My heart seemed to skip a beat, my breathing caught in my throat, making me gasp temporarily for oxygen. My speed increased as I shoved past people without the slightest twang of remorse. I could find no justification for my actions, but I pressed on through the horde of bodies that were now more like an obstacle course, than my peers. All because I'd caught a fleeting glimpse of what I'd perceived to be silver hair.

I shoved my way into a clearing outside a classroom door. It had to be him, it just had to. His height, his stance, his hair. Everything about him was identical to the person I had in mind. But I could only see his back, as he strode away.

"Wait!" I shouted. Several people turned to look at me, but the one I was calling to continued to walk. I tried desperately to follow after him, but the bell rang, and the crowd closed in on me, blocking my vision. I came to a stop in the middle of the hall, letting people edge past me. A sudden wave of disappointment washed through me, dragging my shoulders into a slump and towing the insides of my upper body into a gravitational pull towards the ground. I shook my head a few times. This was ridiculous. So WHAT if he'd been here? It didn't matter all that much anyway. It wasn't like my daylight hours revolved around seeing him…

The rest of the day felt as though it dragged on forever, the weight in my chest not once budging. Olette had pulled me over during one point in the day to ask what was on my mind, but I'd smiled it off with a simple "nothing".

The slump lasted all the way until the final bell, where the thought of buying Twilight Town spared me the remainder of my sanity.

Pence flagged me down outside the gate, grinning widely.

"Hey, 'Destiny'" he joked, smirking.

"Hey, idiot" I leered back, and Pence punched me lightly in the arm,

"Come on, let's go get you Twilight Town. So you really did like it, then?"

"Yeah, it's great. The graphics are flawless." I remembered the few worlds I'd been to, and how real everything had looked. A small smile flickered onto my face at the thought of permanently owning that on CD.

When we arrived the store was packed with eager gamers, all swarming around the shelves upon shelves of new hardware for Twilight Town. I gulped as Pence tugged me towards them. His plump figure easily acted as a human shield, forcing others out of our way, leaving a clear path for me to tread. It was like following behind a snow plough. I gathered up a copy of the game and the new body suit, and lined up next to Pence, who had a small box tucked under his arm. It looked like a DVD of some sort.

"Well, well, well!" a gleeful- and all too familiar- voice sounded behind us, and both Pence and I whirled around to see who it had come from. I recognised Sora instantly, his ever-present grin glimmering in the fluoro lights of the store.

"Oh, hey, Sora" Pence grinned back.

I smiled, readjusting the merchandise in my arms.

"Oh, Sora, can I meet you outside? I have to ask you something about training." Pence said

"Yeah, no problem!" the brunette then turned on his heels and waded out through the new tide of people flooding through the doors. When we'd finally paid for our things and safely emerged from the shop, we found Sora waiting out the front of a small café, his backpack resting at his feet. Both Pence and I pulled up a seat at the table.

"I hope you both like coffee" Sora smiled, taking a rectangular package from his bag. Both of us nodded, just in time to have three cups coffee placed at our table.

Sora fiddled with the parcel in his hands for a moment, before removing a game case. He flipped to the back page of the instruction manual with a thoughtful expression, before looking back up at us.

"Alright, what was it you wanted help with, Pence?" I began to wonder if smiling so much ever got painful for him. If maybe one day the muscles would just get too tired to hold the corners of his mouth up.

I tuned out most of the conversation from this point onwards and focused on sipping my coffee. I caught snippets of their discussion, words like 'central access point', and 'experience distribution'. It all sounded too complicated to me. Like they were discussion a form of science, rather than a computer game. I wondered vaguely if I'd ever catch on. When Pence's issue seemed to be resolved, I reprogrammed my ears to their voices,

"No, I havn't seen many of my friends online, lately" Sora said casually, leaning back in his chair, "How about you, Roxas? How's your levelling going?"

I blinked a few times, before my brain suggested to me that I should respond.

"Oh. Yeah, it's been fine. Everywhere I go, though, it seems like…" I trailed off, recalling my brief few days playing Twilight Town. Everywhere I'd gone, Dark seemed to conveniently be there, either casually talking to me or that blonde haired girl, or completely and utterly destroying everything in sight.

"Seems like what?" Sora prompted, tilting his head to the side with interest.

"Nothing really. Just, everywhere I go... that friend of yours, Darkness, is around every corner I turn, in-game" I explained with a distant air, as if talking to myself.

Sora seemed somewhat amused by this,

"Funny, that's what he tells me all the time. 'That scatterbrained kid, Destiny. He's following me, I swear!'" he mimicked his friend's voice and expression comically.

I could feel something tug at my stomach. He thought I was scatterbrained? He thought I was a KID? I was only one year younger than him.

"Hah" I muttered, looking down at the table.

"His name's Riku, by the way. In real life. Grade 12. Best not to talk to him, though, he has a bit of a temper. I've known him since I was only a kid, so I'm use to it." the brunette scratched his head, peering into his coffee mug to check for any remaining puddles of the espresso he'd ordered. I stared at Sora for a moment, now. Does that mean it HAD been him I'd seen in the halls today? That he attended my school?

"He goes to our school?" I blurted out, looking stunned.

"Yeah. Sometimes." Sora replied nonchalantly, still glaring at his mug as if that would make it magically refill.

Sometimes? What, was he on an apprenticeship or something?

"Oh. I've never seen him there before." I mumbled. Today didn't count, as it probably wasn't even him.

"Yeah, well… as I said, he's only there sometimes. It's amazing he's passing any of his subjects…Oh," he bent over to retrieve a pen and paper from his bag, scrawling something on it, and handing it to me.

"That's my number, in case you need help with anything when you log in. Or hey, when you get some end of year exam study you're tearing your hair out over, you can call me then, too! I already know all the stuff you've gotta do. Tell me, you HAVE studied Pythagoras' theorem before, right?"

I broke open the box my new body suit was in, and was shocked to see what it looked like when I finally pulled it free of it's bindings. It was black and stretchy, scattered with electrical veins that connected together at the chest, where the instruction manual told me to affix a wire. It felt weird, like I was about to go scuba diving rather than online. A metal device fixed over my head like a claw, and my glasses slotted onto my eyes underneath it. Now thoroughly concerned about the electrical jolt dying bought on, I logged in. The sensation nearly knocked me off my feet. A light breeze blew from my left, ruffling my hair and smelling of sea salt. I could feel the weight of my clothes and weapon, and an odd power surging through my stomach that I could only assume was my magic gauge. I looked around, trying to pick up any helpful information.

"Whooooa, the server's been updated. This is so cool! I can feel everything!" I heard a shrill voice exclaim, followed by a chorus of concur.

"You look lost" the voice in my ear made me jump, spinning instantly to investigate. I immediately froze, temporarily forgetting how to breath. Riku stood in front of me, smiling a crooked smile that suited him perfectly. I nodded after a moment, frustrated by my deer-in-headlight reaction to seeing him.

His hands lingered at his side, hesitant at something. It only took a few seconds to conclude what he'd been contemplating, and his left hand reached up towards my face. He placed it on my jaw line, smoothing his thumb along the bone there. My eyes opened just that little bit wider, and he pulled away

"Sorry. Everything just feels different for some reason…I don't remember there being a breeze before. I just wanted to see if…never mind" his confusion seemed so out of character. Maybe he was experimenting with the new hardware? Needless to say, it worked perfectly fine. My face was burning where his fingers had been, and it slowly spread to my cheeks.

"Darkness" I heard a female's voice echo through the crowd, as if her talking blocked out the rest of the chatter in the area.

I saw Riku's stance go rigid. Worry instantly etched its way into my mind, and I looked up to find the boy's aquamarine eyes. Their ocean has frozen into glassy orbs of ice, unmoving, just like the rest of him.

"Darkness" her gentle voice lapped over the district once more before she was at his side, linking her arm around his. Her large blue eyes were painted with innocence as she stared at me, her mouth a small O of question.

"I remember you" she smiled, still watching me. I nodded in recognition, my eyes wandering to where she held Riku's arm.

"What are you doing here, Darkness?" she then turned to look up at the silver-haired teen who still looked like he'd been doused in liquid nitrogen.

"Repairing my weapons" somehow his lips had managed to thaw, but he did not look at her.

"Good. Come on then, we have training to do." she gave me one last look, but the innocence was gone, replaced with eyes that so resembled those of a hunting feline that I was lost for words. Riku nodded submissively, avoiding eye contact with either of us, and followed the blonde dutifully into the crowd without another word. I watched them leave, my insides stinging with distress. What was that all about?

"Roxas"

Huh?

"Roxas!"

…

"ROXAS!" I felt a tugging at my hair before my shades were pulled off, and I was forced to stare into the face of a very irritated Olette.

"Oh…hey Olette" I gave a guilty smile, "didn't hear you"

She simply rolled her eyes,

"Your mum invited me over. She's concerned about your studies. So I'm here for the night to help with that problem." a frown creased her forehead as she watched my expression droop.

"Oh come ON, Roxas, you've been on this game for almost four days straight, now" she retorted, placing her hands on her hips. I sighed,

"Ok, ok. Just give me a minute" I pulled off my suit and the claw from my head.

"Good. Now get your books, we've got a lot of work to do"

I crinkled my nose in annoyance, but grudgingly trudged off to retrieve my school books.

It was going to be a long night…

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Whoot. Updates are fun! I enjoy writing this story! and I hope you all enjoy reading it just as much! -points to review button- is your best friend right now. Show it a bit of love and click it. Until then; i hope you all have a great day/night (whatever it is, wherever you live!) -wave- 


	5. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** I wish I owned Axel! but alas I do not. Nor do I own any of the characters in this story. etc.

--

Miss me? I'm so sorry! I guess it's time for me to admit that I'm forever going to be slack with updates. School, after- school activities and my laziness will probably always be obstacles (until next year! Then I'm done with school...and on to Uni! Ahahaha...ha...-cries-). But a few weekends ago, I stayed over at my friend's house, and we did some great brain-storming! So I've now got a pretty solid looking chapter plan! Or at least until I see fit to tearing it apart and rearranging it again I think I need to start setting myself deadlines for chapter updates, no?

Anyway, enjoy!

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**Chapter Four**

Glitch in the System

My head was pounding by the time the final bell rang, sending knives through my skull. I flinched as the sound of chairs screeching from under desks echoed through my History classroom. Olette had kept me up all night with calculus study. And although I could now say I was almost confident with my skills in the subject, I was one more night short of sleep, after a whole week of sleepless nights. I grudgingly hooked my bag over my shoulder, bracing myself for the halls that awaited, filled with happy, screaming, shouting and jabbering peers.

It was the last day of our last week of classes, and everyone was anxiously anticipating our coming week of exams. Needless to say, I hadn't given it much thought until last night, when Olette had pointed out my ability in calculus was about equal to a seventh grader's understanding of it.

"Roxas!" my name rang loud and clear in my ears, like it was a signal to a group of people holding jackhammers inside my head to start work.

I slowly turned to see who the perpetrator was, to find Olette striding towards me through the crowd, knocking people out of her way as she went.

"You, me, ice-cream store. Come on! It's my treat, to apologise for those dark rings under your eyes"

I glared at her briefly, just to remind her I had not yet forgiven her for my throbbing headache. She gave a guilty smile and led the way.

We reached the central shopping plaza in no time, stepping through sliding doors into the winter wonderland of the air-conditioned facility. The cool air seemed to only make matters worse.

I raised a hand to my temple and massaged it roughly, feeling the pain ebb, fade, and return twice as bad. This repeated until Olette finally took pity on me and purchased a packet of pain killers.

We sat for a while after that, ice-cream wrappers on the table in front of us, watching the crowd of people flocking through the automatic doors.

"Thanks" I sighed, a content smile on my face.

"No problem. But you did make some progress in your studies. Your calculus exam should be a breeze for you now, if you remember everything"

"There's the challenge." I laughed, leaning back in my chair.

It was then that it felt like the air had suddenly fled from my lungs. My head began to spin, as if it wasn't expecting the air to ever return. The crowds of people turned to pedestrian crossing black and white. All, bar one person. He stood out the front of a small fast food shop, arms relaxed at his side, stance calm and collected. He looked like he was waiting for someone. My body lurched forward, throwing me to my feet, where I was held tentatively by my unsuspecting legs.

"Roxas?" Olette looked up at me with a puzzled expression, but I didn't dare look away from my target, afraid he might disappear if I did. I moved forward now, my feet finding a clear path, or creating one if there was no other way through. I broke into a run, forcing past a group of giggling high school girls. I could feel their glares piercing my back, but I didn't bother to glance behind me to apologise. I slowed as I reached him, noticing he wasn't going anywhere in a hurry. Suddenly the room was moving too fast; everyone was racing, the air was thinner, and my body temperature rocketed. His back was to me, but I swore this was the same person. He wore a long sleeved, loose grey jacket and tight-fitting black jeans. I had to wonder how he survived outside in the heat with all those long clothes. His silvery hair was still the same as I remembered.

"Excuse me" I seemed to squeak,

He turned, and I instantly recognised him. His eyes were even more spectacular than I had ever gotten to see in Twilight Town, and his skin looked paler.

"Can I help you?" he inquired, looking down at me with his aqua marine eyes. They were still very deep; very distant.

I was silent for a moment, mutely worrying if my judgment may have been too quick. Maybe this was the wrong person. But it had to be him.

"Sorry, this is going to sound weird. But do you know of a game called Twilight Town?" I asked.

He stared at me, his eyes not moving; their ocean guarding whatever thoughts that were running through his head.

"I…I think so." he answered after a moment,

"You just look like someone I know online, and I wanted to see if it was you…does 'Darkness' ring any bells?"

Another pause. It seemed to be causing him great difficulty to speak. It sent a wave of doubt through me, since the Darkness I knew never once stuttered. And surely you couldn't just _forget_ you had an online character THAT powerful.

"What about…" I felt stupid. Really stupid. But I had to make absolute sure that I wasn't letting this opportunity slip, "…'Destiny13'?"

The boy's eyes flickered for a second, as if a wave of fresh water had gushed into his oceanic orbs,

"…No, but you look very familiar. Have I met you somewhere before?" the fresh water swirled and died, swallowed by the salty liquid surrounding it. The recollection had vanished almost as soon as it had appeared on his features.

"Maybe not…" I muttered, looking down at my feet. I could feel his eyes on me, watching me carefully. But when I looked up, they were not the sceptical expression I had expected. Surely he would think I was crazy by now. But if he did, he didn't let it show.

"My name's Riku, by the way" he offered, to spare me the humiliation I could feel bubbling in the pits of my stomach.

"I'm Roxas" I replied, chancing another look up at his face. It took me a moment to realize what he had said, the degradation still too strong for much to filter through.

Riku? He HAD said Riku, right? Then it MUST be him!

"Riku!" a voice, so familiar, rose over the crowd. The boy standing in front of me responded to it, looking to his right, where a brunette head of hair came bobbing through the now very thick quantity of people. I had to stop my jaw from faltering. It was Sora. I was right! This had to be the person I thought it was. The triumph swirled in my head long enough to make me feel slightly insane.

"Oh, hey, Roxas" Sora smiled, although I could see a much more distant emotion, concealed by his shining white teeth. It was concern. And it confused me slightly as to why it might be there, bordering the brightness of his shocking blue eyes.

"Hey, Sora" I replied, uneasy. The look in his eyes made me feel vulnerable, like I was in a position of knowing something I shouldn't know. It was an expression I had never seen the gleeful, goofy boy wear before. Ever.

Sora darted his eyes between Riku and I a few times, trying to decipher something he wasn't willing to ask for in words. There was a long pause, before he pressed a styrofoam cup into Riku's hand and turned on his heels, facing away from me.

"Well, hate to do this, but Riku and I have to get moving! We'll catch ya around!" he gave a brief wave, which I returned, bemused. Riku gave me an unguarded smile, which reached to his eyes to stir up their stoic ocean. The result left me slightly breathless.

The silver haired boy turned around to follow his friend, and all I could seem to do was stare. I felt like an idiot, when I finally realised that my eyes hadn't moved. That he'd been gone long before I realised I was still looking after him.

Olette finally seemed to catch up with me, probably having gotten swept away with the crowd several times before forcing her way through them. She stepped directly in front of me, snapping me out of my daze.

"Where did you go? Did you want fast food THAT badly?" she said irritably, glancing at the store Sora had come out of only moments ago.

I didn't reply for a second, the words of my own native language seeming foreign.

"Well?" she pressed, pursing her lips.

"I saw someone…" I managed to mutter.

Olette waited for more of an explanation that she just wasn't going to get. At least not right now. I couldn't believe how muddled my mind felt.

"You're hopeless sometimes, Roxas. Come on, let's go"

We reached my house in a matter of minutes, and Olette waved me off at my front lawn. She had gotten a vague explanation out of me, and walked off now, looking rather worried. I didn't have the brain power to bother comprehending why.

Needless to say, the first thing I did was log into Twilight Town. The intense need to see his eyes again was so confusing I didn't even bother pausing to think about it. I just followed it's chorus of instructions without question.

Twilight Town materialised around me, only this time I could feel small drops of water pelting against my uncovered face. I had to pause for a moment, checking if maybe my roof had sprung a leak. It was raining in-game. The sensation startled me. It just felt so real…

The area wasn't as packed as it usually was when I logged in. I could actually see three steps in front of me, and more. As I went to take a step forward, I heard the sound around me falter. As if someone was feeding static into my earphones. I tapped at my ears for a moment, trying to clear the resonance that was near driving me up the wall. Everyone else in the area appeared to be having difficulty with their sound, also. My eyes scrutinized the crowd, watching as people further to my left desperately grasped at their ears, apparently almost in pain from the buzzing. It got louder and louder, but I couldn't remove my earphones. Players all around me were logging out, or running for the station, the static too agonising to bear.

"Lies. All lies" her voice was soft and deadly; a hidden venom beneath the smooth surface of her facade.

"They can't be lies…" his voice. It sent a wave of adrenaline through my whole body, signalling my heart to pick up the pace.

The instant my eyes found him, my feet were walking me towards the place where he and the blonde girl stood. I ignored the increase in sound waves, and pressed on. My ears were screaming mercy when I came to a stop in front of them, my breathing ragged from trying so desperately to fight against my instincts to get the hell away from whatever was causing me so much pain.

"…Roxas" Riku's eyes were on me, inspecting me. My facial expression must have been contorted with agony by now, and the silver haired boy looked at me with worry washing through his eyes.

The pitch of the sound increased at the mention of my name, and I gasped, clenching my hands into tighter fists.

"Who is 'Roxas'? This is Destiny13. Please try and remember people's names correctly" the girl looked up at me with an expression I couldn't read.

"Of course. I'm sorry, Destiny13...I will not make that mistake again" Riku looked possessed as he turned his eyes toward the ground, their colour washing away to a toneless pale blue.

"No, you got it right, I'm-" I let out a strangled cry as the sound increased to an unbearable pitch. The controlled expression on Riku's face broke once again at the sight of my distress.

I struggled to compose myself. Log out. Log out. I couldn't find it. I couldn't move.

The girl's shrill laughter did little to help my pain, and I doubled over. Why couldn't Pence pull one of his surprise visits now? Couldn't dad come home and tear this thing off my head? Just make the noise stop. Please!

"Darkness…you do not know this person, do you?" I forced myself to look up, to watch as the petite blonde stroked a hand affectionately down the side of Riku's face. His eyes were fixed on me, internally struggling with a decision. I could see the comprehension fading from his features, as though something was draining it.

"No" Dark's flat voice finally answered, and the ringing ceased. I fell limp on the ground now, letting my eyes close; letting my breathing steady.

'_Darkness has logged out'_

My head jerked upwards just in time to see the swirling, glittering colours whisk my reason for being here away.

"Damnit…" I muttered, massaging my forehead.

"What do you think you're doing?" I felt a sharp pain shoot up my side as the blonde girl came to kneel beside me, leering down at me with unyielding hatred.

"What?" I looked up into her sky-blue eyes, searching for the reason behind her glare.

"You're making things worse, can't you see? It took me a LONG time to write Code 384, and you're ruining it! Stay away from him! You'll only hurt him!" I flinched at her shrill tone, eyes fixed on her in bewilderment.

What was she talking about? How could I hurt him…? Why did I have to stay away from him?

"What do you mean?" I asked in a small voice, her venomous stare slowly eating away at my confidence.

"I mean that I don't want you going near him. Not here, not in the real world. Not ever. Understand?"

"No" I could almost feel the hate waves radiating off her, as the area around me started to grow hot. I glanced around at the other players. They all seemed completely oblivious to our existence; to the rising in temperature.

"Listen, Destiny13, try to understand that this is for his own good. I'm _helping_ him. He asked me to do this. He's not ALLOWED to remember you! Please just stay away from him."

She stood at this, her noxious eyes still on me. I wanted to retaliate. I wanted to yell at her, tell her to butt out. Who was she, anyway? Some random Riku had met online? But no matter how much I tried, no sound would come out of my mouth, and no amount of will power could move my body.

"Goodbye", and she was gone.

I lay there for a while. My mind felt blank; working too slow, like a server with too much lag. Unbearable lag. It was so frustrating.

Players were walking past, some stopping momentarily to stare as I swayed to my feet. The only decipherable thing floating through my head was 'what the hell?!', nothing else was really of any intelligible meaning.

I quickly located the log out button, and tore the body suit from my sweat-soaked form, dumping it on the floor beside my chair. Dropping myself in front of my computer, I hurriedly bought up Twilight Town's home page, and clicked the forums. Forehead still leaking moisture down my face like a loose tap, I typed 'code 384' into the search bar.

"_No Results could be found for your search…"_

I furrowed my brow and tried again:

'Blonde haired girl'.

A whole page filled with results, some completely redundant to my questions. I began to filter through them, scrolling down the page, and over one. Page two turned up a relevant paragraph or two, but nothing more. By the time I was on page 23, it wouldn't have been surprising if my brows had began to sink through my eyelids. I could feel the frustration kicking away at my stomach and chest, and my left foot was tapping away at the floor with lightning speed.

_**Tedsgurl:**_

"_No, that's not a player. The **blonde haired girl** is a moderator. She's just a program, though…she's like a bot created by the company to filter out bugs and such. She doesn't really talk to anyone, only on events. But she's self-sustaining and all that. It just means the server doesn't have to go down for maintenance this way. That's why she exists." _

I clicked the link to the thread, heart pounding.

A few replies were listed underneath the author's original post:

_**Node36:**_

"_Serious? I always see her hanging around this dude with silver hair. Is he a mod, too?"_

_**Tedsgurl:**_

"_No. Does she really? I've never seen her with anyone" _

_**Node36:**_

"_Yeah, he's hella strong, too. Do you think he's hacked the system or something?"_

_**Tedsgurl:**_

"_I don't think he could. That chick's a pretty guarded program…I thought she was made to NOT talk to other players. That's what I heard…anyone remember her name? I know it's been listed somewhere…I'm such a n00b, I've forgotten 8D"_

_**Scuffstral:**_

_Sup? Her names namine shes damn hot too lol does anyone here know where I can find a moogle gem? _

"Namine…?"

I closed the page, having gathered enough information, though now it only prompted more questions.

This girl…was just a program? A compilation of data…? But if she was programmed to stay away from players, why was it that she had a constant audience with Riku? What did she mean by 'he's not allowed to remember you'? Obviously some asshole was getting a good laugh out of this. It had to be a joke. It's just a game. And games aren't real…

I quickly checked my online messenger. Sora wasn't online, nor was Pence. The only person online was Olette, who was usually too busy reading fan fiction or chatting with our calculus teacher to pay attention to any of her other contacts. My eyes flicked to the mobile sitting on my bed. Hesitant, I retrieved it, giving it a wary look before flipping the top and locating Sora's number in my phonebook.

It only rang three times before the line clicked and Sora's cheery voice boomed through the receiver.

"Hey, Roxas!" even at arm's length I could hear him,

"Hey, Sora"

"What's up?"

"Um…sorry to bother you, but I have a question about Twilight Town…"  
"Oh! Of course! What do you need to know?" his cheery tone was almost contagious,

"Do you know anything about a moderator called 'Namine'?" there was a pause, a sound of thought, and then a click of fingers.  
"Yeah, I remember now! She's the bot that does maintenance on the server, isn't she?"  
"Yeah, that's the one. Do you see her often?" my hand had wound itself around a bunch in my quilt. I wasn't good with near-strangers and phones. And delving into subjects that had possibly only been created by my paranoia, with strangers, was not something I ever thought I'd be doing.

"Never. The only time I've seen her was at the last event. I won first prize in that! The Oblivion. Damn that was a good day…"

"Wow, that's awesome…uh…so you havnt seen her when you've been online with Riku?"

"…No. Why?"

I sighed. Worst case scenario? I was completely paranoid, and the idea that Namine was some kind of prankster and/or malfunctioning program was merely the coinage of my mind. The worst thing that Sora could do would be to shun me at school, if I were wrong. I had to at least try, or my curiosity would surely kill me. I took a deep breath,

"Well…"

* * *

What a stupid cliff hanger. But the chapter was beginning to get a little too long for my liking, so I cut it off there! But don't worry, I'll get as much done on the next chapter as I can while there's a momentary break in my school work. I currently have no assignments I must work on at home. It's like the eye of a storm- because it's obvious they're going to hit us with something soon x.x! Ah the joys. But anyway, you know the rest: for the love of all things holy and damned, please review! More reviews equals faster updates, equals happy readers? ... equals (fanfic net doesn't seem to like the equals sign!) happy writer. Which all somehow amounts to 42. I hope you all have a great week! And good luck with any schoolwork/assignments/essays you may be working on!!

-wave-

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	6. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: **Don't own it...Sigh

Ok, even **I** will admit that the time gap between this update and my last is ridiculous xD Sorry, everyone! I'm pretty sure most of you will be getting alerts in your inbox and thinking "wtf is this? I don't remember asking for alerts on this story!aftikdhfjfngj". But alas, I have finally updated! No, it's not some kind of practical joke- scroll down! There are words =D Happy words of wonder, joy and bad grammar...I'm finally finished high school! Holy damn I'm so happy...kind of...because now comes the job hunting and uni applying and...well just the general daunting fact that the world no longer consists of only my dopey year 12 maths class...that's one thing I'm NOT going to miss...ugh. But hey, it can't be all that bad, right? =D....right? So now that my short effusion of nonsense is out of the way, you may read this excessively late chapter! You might want to take a re-cap and read the last few chaps...I know I had to, to write this one xD

Oh, also! Someone mentioned a few things about my lacking in explaining the technicals of the actual game Twilight Town- so I'm having a mini vote...thing here, as I'm having trouble deciding whether I want to: 1. take up plot-explaining time in chapters and filling them with tech-talk, 2. posting a few things on my profile to explain or 3. posting them in my next chapter up the top in my rantings. The last two are actually quite similar 8D it just might save you guys time clawing through the mess that is my profile if I post them for you above a chapter. Or I could 4. not worry about explaining it, as there are still a few things I'm not yet sure about (or have simply not thought of yet), though you can ask me if you feel the urge! So tell me what you think would be best when you review! or if you 5. Really don't give a damn- you can say that, too xD ANYWAY- enjoy!!

* * *

_I sighed. Worst case scenario? I was completely paranoid, and the idea that Namine was some kind of prankster and/or malfunctioning program was merely the coinage of my mind. The worst thing that Sora could do would be to shun me at school, if I were wrong. I had to at least try, or my curiosity would surely kill me. I took a deep breath,_

"_Well…" _

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** Chapter Five**

_ Mods In Wonderland_

"Well, it was just about your friend, Riku…"  
"Yeah? What about him?" I could hear the puzzlement chipping away at Sora's enthusiasm, as though he was expecting something bad, bracing himself for a sudden impact. Did my voice really sound that shaky?

"That girl he hangs around- the blonde one. I was…browsing the forums, and I found a thread saying she was actually a program…and that she wasn't supposed to talk to players…is Riku a mod or something?"

"Blonde haired girl? You mean Namine? I've never seen her hanging around Riku before…and he's not a mod…that I know of" there was a long pause, in which Sora made a few sounds of thought before anything of any meaning reached my ears,

"I might ask him next time I log in. But that's weird…"

"Yeah…And weird things always seem to happen when Namine is around. Just then she--" I stopped myself mid-sentence. How stupid would that have sounded? Telling Sora that a _program_ had just told me to leave a player alone. That she'd said I wasn't allowed to go near him?

"She what?" Sora prompted,

"She uh…she appeared, and the sound in the area became really high-pitched. Everyone seemed to be affected by that. But the heat also increased…and apparently only I felt it," I wouldn't tell him that it had increased with every word that Namine had spoken to me, and the way her voice had torn at my ears like an angry feline shredding a bird.

"Wow…maybe your hardware's faulty?" Sora suggested,

"Mmm…maybe. I'll get it checked or something"

"Sounds like a plan. Sorry I can't really help with anything else…but I'll do some research on them for you! I've got a bit of spare time after study, and no one needs me for levelling!…Speaking of which, how're you going?"

"I…uhm…" when I thought about it, I couldn't recall levelling very much at all. If any, "I'm…getting there, I guess"

"Because Flare asked about you the other day, says she's willing to help you if you need it. Both of you being Mystics and all. Oh, Flare's a guy in real life, too, if you hadn't noticed." Sora laughed, also clearly aware of how painfully obvious the red head's voice made this fact.

"Heh, yeah, I noticed" I replied with a smile, feeling a little more at ease.

"Well, if you log in now you might be able to catch him- her…Flare. Haha. Whatever you wanna call him. There's a messaging function in-game called 'whispering' basically to activate it, you just whisper the character's name, and wait for a reply, then it's like talking to them as if they're in front of you, but you have to keep your voice low or it puts you back into the general chat channel. Got it?"

"Uhm…yeah, I think so" I replied, making a mental note.

"Alright. Well, good luck! I'll hop online and do some research on those things you said now, since I don't have anymore work to do!"

"Thanks a lot, Sora" I replied in a much cheerier tone,

"Anytime, Roxas! Later!"

"Bye!"

The line clicked and dropped out into a monotonous beeping noise before I hung up. I felt a little more at ease now that I had Sora helping out. He seemed like a very reliable kind of person.

Without a second thought I logged back in, disregarding the churning feeling that arose in my stomach at the sound of the log-in screen music, that brought forward not-so-distant memories of previous events.

Once again I was greeted by a soft westerly breeze that swept my robe around my feet.

"…_Flare_" I whispered, self-conscious of the people around me, "_Flare__…__?_"

"_Yo! Destiny?_" the voice in my ears was quiet and husky, and I glanced around momentarily, expecting to see the red head standing somewhere close-by. It was the strangest feeling, talking to a voice in my head, and I had to remind myself that to other people around me, this was a normal thing to be doing.

"_Yeah, it__'__s me. I was just talking to Cal over the phone. He said you offered to help me train?_" I felt a little rude, suggesting that I wanted to leech off someone, even if they _had_ offered.

"_I sure did! You__'__re in Twilight Town right now? Where abouts?_"

I looked around, peering through the swarm of people that was forever a constant in this area.

"_Near the markets. Only a little to the left of the item store_" I replied, having finally managed to collect my bearings.

"_Alright, hang tight little buddy, I__'__ll be right there. Don__'__t move._"

Within seconds I saw a bright stream of light, which was followed by the appearance of an intense, red mass of hair. Flare was standing in front of me within seconds, menacing grin present on her face, and small black, triangle tattoos decorating her cheeks just below her eyes. She placed her hands on her hips as she inspected me.  
"You don't look like you've even gotten past level 2 yet! What have you been doing? Feeding Dog Heartless or something!? Eesh"

I scratched the back of my head, feeling a little asinine under the weight of her status. She had to be at least level 60 by now.

"Yeah…uhm…"  
"Never mind explanations. They take up time. We've got a lot of work to do, by the looks of it. Come on!" her slender hand seized my wrist, and I felt her grip tighten as she pulled something from the pocket of her cloak. It was a tiny orb, and, after whispering a location to it, she pushed it hurriedly into my open hand. An unnerving, dizzying, swirling feeling lifted through my entire body from my feet upwards as I was plunged into darkness. It was almost the equivalent to what I'd imagine being in space without gravity control would feel like. Quite suddenly the feeling was gone, and an intense gravitational pull began to suck me downward through the black void, planting me firmly and almost painfully on my feet, slap-bang in the middle of a forest. Or what I thought was a forest. I took a few steps backward to assess my surroundings. On second observation, I noticed the trees to in fact be extraordinarily long strands of grass, with the occasional flower poking out from amongst them. Stepping back further, I realised the trees towered a good twenty stories above me, stretching their branches toward their neighbours to form a thick canopy overhead. The little light that filtered through gave barely enough illumination to see clearly, though I was instantly alerted to Flare's presence when a bright tunnel of sparkling dust exploded into the figure of a slim girl, who stepped forward wearing a huge grin.  
"Where are we?" I asked timidly, ducking out of the way as a swarm of bread slices pretending to be butterflies flittered past.

"Wonderland. This place can get a bit trippy, so stay close."  
"Was that…flying…bread?"

"Oh, it gets worse…"

Not at all feeling comforted, I followed Flare towards a small pond, surrounded by mushrooms that comparative to myself, were about the size the trees should be.

"Watch out!"

With no warning, I felt a hard metallic object slam into my upper back, and the sensation of falling forward filled my senses as my camera fell to the ground, where my hands collided with the dirt floor of the forest in time to stop my face from coming into contact with it.

"Get up and fight, Roxas!" I could hear Flare calling from above, and my eyes swiveled to see her perched on top of a mushroom just a little to my left. I heard a clattering sound behind me, and pushed myself to my feet and off to the side in time to see the thing that had hit me, plough into the ground where I had lay. My eyes widened as it's attention turned once again to me, and I began to run.

"What're you doing, Destiny?! Hit it with a spell! How did you even get two levels, acting like this!?"

"MINI GAMES!" I shouted back, hurtling towards the shrubbery. I dove into the long grass, hoping it would bring me salvation from the battle. But no such luck- the monster chasing me charged into the grass, this time hitting me in the chest and throwing me backwards out onto the dirt again. The green bar in the corner of my screen had depleted into orange now, and I presumed this was bad.

"Do you even know how to cast spells?!" Flare's voice was a little more distant now, so I didn't bother with direction when I shouted back that I had absolutely no idea how. An irritated sigh sounded to my right, and an angry growl from in front as Flare threw her arm out just as the attacking heartless charged. A transparent ball of pentagonal tessellations surrounded us, glinting bright blues and purples where the heartless' head hit. Kneeling down she eyed me for a moment, before holding a hand up to the right of my head,

"See here? This blue bar?"

I looked up at her hand without moving my head to see her finger was moving around near my health bar, poking at the strip of blue beneath it.

"Yeah…"  
"That's your mana bar, kay? This tells you how much magic you've got left. I presume you knew this, right?" Flare's mouth always seemed to fall back into a menacing smile whenever she finished speaking, and I wondered briefly if she'd designed her appearance to be this way, permanently.  
"Uhm…yeah…kind of-"

"Good. Now, get up" Yanking at my arm, Flare pulled me to my feet and the bubble around us expanded accordingly.

"To the right of your screen are your spells. This bar is automatically activated when you enter battle mode, so if you move your right hand like this--"

I did as instructed,

"Good- you'll notice you just hit your fire spell icon. See your right hand?" Flare motioned, and I observed the fire surrounding my hand, licking at my upper arm. The heat was subtle, and luckily not at all as painful as it looked.

"Your hand will change according to what spell you choose. Once you get better at this, you can make the choosing and casting of the spell look more fluid…which really serves no purpose other than looking cool…like so"

The shield around us shattered, and Flare stepped in front of me, throwing her right arm to the side quickly, before sweeping both hands out to her front, from which a bolt of electricity darted forward and enveloped the monster in a shock of yellow. The monster twitched and constricted until finally exploding into a cloud of black smoke.

I sighed in relief as Flare tuned back to face me,

"It also serves well in PvP to be able to cast the spell before your opponent can see what element you're using. Especially if you're up against another Mystic"

I nodded, looking around cautiously for any other monsters.

"Haha, calm down- there's only soldiers and shadows here. I won't let you die." Flare ruffled my hair before making her way back to the pond, motioning for me to follow.

"Now that you know what to do, you have no excuse to run away! Go for it"

My expression fell as she disappeared in a flash of blue light, reappearing atop one of the mushrooms. The same clattering noise of a soldier's feet met my ears and my stance went rigid. My eyes still fixed on Flare, who gave me a thumbs up, I moved my right hand jerkily out to the side, where I had to poke around a little before actually hitting the fire icon. My right hand now covered in flames, I turned to face the threat.

"That's a fireball spell! Move you're hand like you're throwing a tennis ball!" Flare yelled from behind me. I nodded briefly, lifting my hand into the air. The heat increased slightly, as a ball of hot charcoal formed in my palm and I gripped it firmly before hurling it at the soldier. Mid-throw the charcoal caught fire and exploded on contact with the opposing heartless. I cringed as the smoke cleared, leaving no trace of the foe.

"Woohoo! Good job!" Flare's hand was ruffling my hair the next second, and I nearly jumped in shock.

"You have to stop teleporting around like that…you'll give me a heart attack" I sighed, a small smile curling my lips. There was a strange satisfactory feeling in the aftermath of killing my first monster, and I would have indulged in gloating a little to myself, had a whole army not popped up in front of us.

"…Looks like he had friends…well, good luck, little buddy!" Flare gave me a pat on the back before vanishing back to her mushroom, leaving me to fend for myself. I gulped, selecting the fire icon again…

------------------------------------

"Five levels in 2 hours….not bad for a little guy like yourself." Both of us were now seated on top of a mushroom, me trying not to look too worn out, and Flare trying not to look too much like she was about to start laughing.

"I should be level ten by now- and you know it" I panted, flopping down onto my back.

"Heh…well, you're new to games in general, so I'm cutting you some slack." Flare was sitting cross-legged in front of me, looking down at me with the same smile she always wore, though it's intimidating effect was starting to wear away now that I was getting used to it.

"Are you sure you're ok hanging around while I level?" I asked, once I'd finally caught my breath.

"Yeah, don't worry about it, Destiny. I could be level 100 right now if I wanted to be"

"Really?"  
"Yeah, Mod privileges!" Flare grinned, "I can type in a few sentences and have every piece of epic armor in the game"

I stared for a moment, flicking through appropriate questions,

"So…you'd know who Namine is?" Was the first on my list.

" Haha, you're not going to beg me for items? That's a first! And you mean 'what' Namine is. She's just a program. I know the guy who created her"

I sat up, nearly too quickly, and stared as the blood swirled in my head.

"Whoa- you get bitten by something? What's up?" Flare gave me a puzzled look as I stumbled over thoughts and questions again.

"You know who made her?" I finally blurted out,

"Well, I've never met him, and we only call him 'Boss', so I can't say I really know his name, either… but I've spoken with him via phone about a few things. I do a lot of the graphics designing for Twilight Town. See those trees above us? Each of those are individual. Not a single graphic in this game is a copy. And there are a lot of trees in this game…" Flare scrunched up her nose at the obviously stressful memory. And I blinked up at the canopy in thought. It was hard to imagine the environment around me was actually simulated.

"You did a great job…" I mused, the mass of questions still stirring in my head.  
"Thanks! I don't hear that very often. My co-workers think 'constructive criticism' means 'scream at them until they produce something better.'"

I gave a small laugh as I searched for my next question,

"So you're pretty high up in the production team for Twilight Town, huh?"

"Yeah, I'm up there with the 'big boys', you could say…"  
"Wow…That's impressive…you must be rich, eh?" I pulled a wide, cheesy grin to which Flare responded with a chuckle,

"You'd think so, huh? Nopes, I still live in a run-down old apartment, in Craps-ville. My end of town is like the pits of this city." she grinned, "but it's home, and I think I'd feel weird living in a flash house."

I gave a small smile, glancing back down at the pond, where a soldier was eyeing us hungrily. Flare followed my line of vision and laughed,

"Hey, you finish school soon, right?" she asked

"Yeah, in about a week," I replied, getting to my feet,

"You and I should get coffee sometime. Maybe we can rig up some kind of training plan for you" Flare was also on her feet now. Kicking off from the mushroom, she grabbed my wrist on her way past and dragged me over the edge. I was almost about to start panicking when I saw the ground vanish beneath me in a blue flash of light, and reappear the next second, right under my feet.

"There you go again giving me heart attacks with that teleporting thing…" I muttered, stepping in front of the heartless and hurling a fireball at it.

"You're becoming a pro at this" Flare grinned, walking ahead of me, "I'll just let you handle the rest of them, then…" as I followed, dark portals opened up all around me, and I was forced to single-handedly wipe the entire army out with fire spells. Needless to say, my arm muscles were going to develop just fine…

By the time I hit level ten I could safely say that at this rate I'd never need to visit the gym again. My arms were aching all over, and the adrenaline rush had kept me on my toes the entire time. As we'd progressed through the forest the monsters had gotten bigger and more difficult, some shaped like balloons, while others shot through the air above, avoiding most of my spells.

I slumped over, placing my hands on my knees and heaving a sigh.

"Well, little hero, you're doing quite alright. When're you next free?"  
"Huh?" I managed to get out through heavy breaths,

"What's the next date you're not going to have anything on? Like study or school, etcetera?"

"Oh…uhm…I'm free tomorrow, I think…" I straightened up now, finally able to catch my breath.  
"Oh, good. 4:30 at the café near the central plaza sound ok to you?" Flare cocked her head to the side, intimidating smile once again present.

"Oh, um..Sure. I'll see you there"

The red head pulled what looked like a paper and pen from her pocket now, scrawled something down and handed it to me,

"That's my number, in case you can't find me. But my hair's the same colour…so you should have no problem" she gave a small wave before her character was engulfed in a bright light, and she was gone.

I looked down at the note, memorizing the number before logging off and clicking it into my phone.

The thought of meeting such an intimidating person face-to-face was a little scary. And if his real smile looked anything like his character's…

I dismissed the idea, deciding to worry about it tomorrow. But if he was who he claimed to be, then he could be just the right person to interrogate about Namine…

But could I trust him?…

* * *

-gasp-

See? it WAS a chapter =D and we can only now wait to see when the next one will show up...

Food supply to my town is currently cut off due to the massive amounts of rain we've been getting! Because no trucks can make it through D= Which means no milk-- which therefor means NO COFFEE!!!! Dx which could also mean a death author...so there may never be another update! But so long as there is still coffee in the kitchen, you need not fear that this story will ever be discontinued--for that reason and the fact my friend would KILL me if I suddenly announced I wasn't writing any more chapters =D hooray~ Anyway!

Bye for now -waves- ...see that review button? 3 yes?


	7. Chapter 6

** Disclaimer: Do not own character thingies. Do own crappy writing-style :D**

Hey all!

Back again :D Sorry for all those who received e-mail updates twice, I forgot to edit the chapter, submitted it, and then remember that I had indeed not edited it...but here it is! Chapter six, FINALLY posted and hopefully enjoyable! Again, sorry for the _massive_ delays in updates. Housekeeping, University and my boyfriend, have been keeping me quite busy 8D

RANDOM FACT OF THE DAY!! : "The word "lethologica" describes the state of not being able to remember the word you want." Which I suffered quite a lot, during the process of writing this chapter. Interesting, no? 8D anyway, enough randomness! ONWARDS, to the chapter!!!!

Enjoy~

**

* * *

**

** Chapter Six**

_ Bad Coffee_

"Roxas…Roxas, you lazy--!" Olette's elbow jabbed into the side of my stomach, and I winced briefly, rubbing at the throbbing area.  
"…What?" I moaned, swivelling my head to look at her over my arm, on which my head was rested.

"We have ten minutes until our calculus exam, and you're SLEEPING!?"

"Yes."  
"…Wake UP!" the brunette hissed, hitting me over the head with the pencil she held in her hand.

"Mmm…I didn't sleep last night, gimme a break…" ignoring the sharp pains that continued to peck away at my skull, I turned my head back over to look out the window. It was pouring rain outside, and a few juniors were rushing to their class, jackets and umbrellas hoisted over their heads.

In the end, I had stayed up most of the night tossing and turning over the questions that would not leave me alone; why had she spoken to me? Why was she so happy when Riku was clearly distressed? Why wasn't I allowed to speak to Riku? I hoped to ask Flare these questions sometime. But I still had no idea who she…-HE- really was, and I wasn't about to go spouting odd questions at strangers. And especially not when this would be our first meeting. I didn't want to ruin my first impression by asking him why a program was being all over-protective of a player.

I was also worrying that my concern for the issue would raise other questions…

"Alright guys, take your papers, separate your desks, and let's do this thing!" the teacher gave an enthusiastic grin, and a few girls sitting up the back gave a love-sick sigh. I rolled my eyes. At least this would be over soon.

I handed my papers up at the end of the exam. A three hour exam that started at 1 in the afternoon just shouldn't exist. And luckily it didn't, anymore. Collecting my bag from my desk, I headed immediately for the coffee shop where I had planned to meet Flare. My curiosity kept my pace fast as I rounded the corner, hesitating briefly at the door. I stepped in and my shoulders hunched a little under the weight of my anticipation. It was usually a quiet little place, though today, it was packed to the rafters with school kids, all coming in from the end of their exams. After looking around I concluded that he mustn't yet be there, and approached the counter. After ordering a cappuccino I sat at one of the counter benches and waited, checking my watch every now and then. Right on 4:30, there was an uprise in chattering all around the room almost instantly after the sound of the café door opening and closing. I turned my head to peer over my shoulder, and the first thing I saw was flaming red hair, followed by bright emerald eyes, triangle tattoos, and a hand, which rested on my shoulder. I trailed my vision up his arm to meet his face again, and blinked.

"The little guy from Twilight Town, I'm going to guess, is you, right?"

It took all of my will power not to gape, and swallowed my mouthful of coffee before replying with a nod,  
"Yeah, my name's Roxas"

"Roxas, huh? I'm Axel, a.k.a: Flare. Nice to finally meet you."  
"Likewise" I smiled nervously, watching the red head's smile shift to a smirk as he took a seat next to me. He was amazingly tall and slender, and his bony fingers tapped absentmindedly at the counter as his eyes gazed up at the menu board. I observed through my peripheral vision, the shocked and awed stares of some of the customers, and couldn't help but feel a little more self-conscious. His smile and features were certainly just as intimidating as they were in-game…if not more so.

By the time the small café had cleared out a little more, Axel and I had moved to a table that was tucked away in the corner near a window. It was a little more comfortable there, away from the center of the room and the prying stares that seemed to be constantly on us. So far, everything had been small talk about the weather, Twilight Town, school, recent news and how burnt Axel's coffee was.

I hadn't brought up the subject I was dying to ask about. The name "Namine" hadn't even been uttered yet. From what I had gathered so far, Axel seemed to be just as nice of a guy as he was in-game (though now he actually looked like a guy, instead of just sounding like one). And from observation, the menacing smile was not just a character modification in Twilight Town, but an actual constant feature on his face, even in real life.

"So did you manage to gain any levels once I left?" his gaze was steady, to a point of making me feel uncomfortable. With his eyes constantly on me, I found it rather difficult to find the words I needed, when I needed them.

"Uh…no, I ended up logging out shortly after you did"

"Ah, fair enough. Keep up the good work, though, Roxas, and you'll be catching up to me in no time." He gave another smile before draining the rest of his coffee, cringing as he placed the mug back on the table.

"Ugh…the coffee here is usually good…but that was just burnt as hell." Axel let his tongue hang out of his mouth for a moment to further his point, and I couldn't help but laugh at his facial expression. Axel almost immediately joined in.

After a moments silence, during which Axel ducked off to get a drink of water, to attempt to rid his mouth of the taste of burnt coffee, I was finally able to bring up my questions.

"Hey, you know how I was talking about Namine the other day?"

"Yeah"

"Do you know much about her? Other than who made her?" I tried to keep my eyes on his, instead of glued to the table out of sheer intimidation. Axel's brow furrowed slightly, and his smile shifted into a flat line. He looked to be deep in thought for a few seconds before his eyebrows lifted again and he looked back up at me,

"I know she's essential to the game's functionality, and takes important log files of things so we developers can correct any errors. There isn't really much else to know about her."

"Ah. So she's not designed to follow players around? Can she talk of her own accord?" I watched again as Axel's thin, short eyebrows knotted together,

"I don't think so. As far as I know she can say a select few phrases, unless we input dialog for events. Basically she can only talk if a mod is feeding her words" he took another swig of his water before turning his eyes back on me. There was something in his gaze that made me turn my vision back to the table, and my face proceeded to heat uncomfortably. I heard him chuckle under his breath before remarking about the time,

"It's nearly 6pm. Where abouts do you live, Roxas? I can drop you home, if you'd like."  
"Oh, no that's ok, I live just a little north of the school, near the train station"  
"No worries, so do I" Axel shifted his glass of water to the side of the table a little as he stood up,

"I can drop you off on my way home."

I gave him a smile and a nod before he turned and proceeded to the door, me following timidly behind, once again very aware of the stares we- or maybe it was him- were attracting.

The drive home was very short, and mostly consisted of the blaring radio filling in our silences, with Axel occasionally singing along to a chorus or two of a familiar song.

"Thanks for the lift" I smiled as I stepped out of the car, slinging my school bag over my shoulder.

"No worries, Roxas. I'll catch ya later"

"Yeah, seeya" I closed the car door and stepped back as the vehicle pulled out of the driveway. I stayed to give a brief wave before heading inside.

Once in my room, I emptied my bag and grudgingly pulled my history text book from my bookshelf. I had another 3 hour exam tomorrow, so I figured studying might be a little more productive than leveling…though I could already hear Pence's voice in my head, scolding me on this decision.

It only took me about 15 minutes before I gave in to temptation, threw my book aside and logged into Twilight Town.

The night sky was dotted with constellations of all sizes, a giant Moogle spaced out in tiny glowing specks directly above the town. I took a little while to simply stare upwards, trying my best to ignore the barrage of players pouring into the market area. I could feel my nerves slowly unknotting as the cool breeze brushed it's way over my face and through my hair, and for a brief moment I let myself completely forget about the ties between this world, and the world my feet were currently standing on. That was until I was bowled over by a brawly looking player in an extreme rush to get to the train station. I groaned as I righted my camera angle and scanned the crowd. After nearly being knocked over a few more times, I decided to make my way to the station, following the flow of people until I was pushed through the doors and along toward the platforms. I latched onto a nearby post with destinations pinned to it and waited for the rush to subside before reading through the list of stations.

"_I thought I might find you on here"_

I sprung to attention at the sound of Axel's voice in my ear, and whipped my head around in search of him. I sighed when I realized the red head was nowhere in sight. The whisper system was something I had yet to get accustomed to.

"_Flare? Where are you?"_

"_Traverse Town. Testing some coding and scripts and such…are you busy right now?"_

"_No, not really" _I replied, wrapping my hands around the pole in front of me once more as a fresh wave of players bustled past.

"_Think I could borrow you for a while? I need a test subject for something"_

"_Uh…sure thing."  
"Great. Thanks, Roxas. I'm in the third district of Traverse Town. I'll see you there?"  
"Alright"_

Grudgingly, I let the savior of a pole in front of me go, and was instantly swept away with the crowd heading towards the station.

The moment I stepped off the train, I was shoved out into the small street just outside a quaint café, where players were gathered around, chatting happily; exchanging stories of battles and run-ins with haggling merchants.

I stood there in the tiny clearing for a moment, collecting my bearings and trying to map the easiest way of getting into a less crowded area.

After waiting for a few minutes I dashed through the first clearing that presented itself and up a flight of stairs towards a large set of double doors. Finally managing to squeeze through the only gap I could make between the heavy planks of wood, I emerged into a little less of a clustered area. The only place drawing in enough people to become bothersome was the hotel, which I promptly avoided and headed down one of the backstreets. It wasn't long before I found myself in a near deserted stretch of the town, plodding down a pathway close by to a fountain.

"Heeey, Roxas!"

I lifted my head to see Axel's character striding towards me, her hands tucked into the pockets of a new cloak.

"Hey," I smiled, waiting until Flare had stopped directly in front of me.

"Alright, stay still for a moment, I just have to check something" Flare's hands raised in front of her, poised in the same position one would hold if a keyboard were before them. A few seconds later, a small transparent screen flickered into view, hovering only a short distance from Flare's face. Her hands began tapping away at the space below the screen, punching letters and numbers into an invisible keyboard, and I watched as lines of indecipherable words and numbers darted out in perfect lines before her.

"I want to test some cloaking codes on you. You alright with that? It's a little…well… 'illegal', so to speak.."  
"Oh...uhm, sure"

"Awesome."

Flare's fingers punched in a few more lines of code before the screens evaporated, and with a smile she turned to look back at me,

"All set. From what I can tell, there's a GM through the door down this alley. It has a little fire symbol on it, just throw a fire spell, and it should open. The cloaking code I just added to your character data should hide your location from all online staff and players. So basically, you're invisible to our systems. You're 'appearing offline'."

I nodded slowly, looking only slightly confused by the information being fed to me. Computer talk and I didn't get along all that well.

"Ok, go find that door, and get as close to the GM as you can. I've muted your voice in the main channel, so you can still whisper to me, and no one around you should be able to hear it, other than the intended receiver. Alright?"

I nodded again.

"Good. If you get caught…uhm…I'll be in a bit of trouble…that's ok- but…try not to get caught…please"

"I'll do my best" I gave a slightly nervous smile, concerned now that there were consequences involved.

With as much confidence as I could muster, I strode off towards the target door, keeping my eyes locked on my fire spell icon, hands at the ready. After a few last tentative steps, my hands went through the motions of casting a red-hot flame at the thick wooden barrier. To my surprise, instead of bursting into flames like I expected, the door simply jumped a little and slid clumsily upwards, tucking itself away to leave a large gaping black entrance. I glanced at Axel, who was grinning encouragingly back at me, before taking a step into the black void, which took the approach as an invitation to engulf my camera in darkness. I fumbled forwards for a few seconds, my feet catching on rocks and what felt like mossy tree roots. And although none of these things were actually catching my feet that stood on the floor of my bedroom, the smooth and accurate mechanisms installed in the body suit continued to trick my mind into believing otherwise. It was a little unnerving when I took the time to think about it. But my quiet contemplations were soon interrupted, as a peculiar cottage sprung into view beyond the veil of black. A dim light shone from the interiors, seeping through the small cracks in the walls and out the curtained windows. I was so entranced by its appearance that I barely noticed the freezing cold liquid oozing into my shoes, and slowly ascending to my ankles and thighs. Once I'd observed enough of the structure in front of me, slightly amused by it's teapot-shaped exterior, my attention was directed to the massive lake that surrounded my intended destination. A little shocked, I backtracked to the moss-covered ground behind me and stood, searching for a way over without ruining my attire and possibly freezing to death.

"_Roxas? Can you hear me??"_ I jumped a little in fright at the sound of Axel's voice so close to my ear, the whisper system still a foreign communication method to me.

"_Yeah, I can hear you."_

"_Good. To your right, you should see some really huge stepping stones."_

Swivelling my head to the right, I spotted said stones which were slowly moving from side to side, as if some giant turtle were propelling them from beneath.

"_I see them. Is the GM in that teapot house?" _

"_Yes. I'm not sure who it is, though…strange…give me a moment. Stay where you are"_

I waited, only moving to observe more of my surroundings, which I reminded myself, were probably designed by the very person I was talking to at this moment. A small smile curled my lips at the thought. Axel created this world. Or…at least helped a great deal with it. Even the moss on the surrounding rocks, was put there by none other than the very masculine female, Flare.

Still slightly dazed with awe, I was shocked once again when Axel's voice mumbled through the whisper channel.

"_Damnit. Looks like they're using a cloaking device, too… which is really weird…because unless they're testing something, too, I'm not the only one on this team that's up to no good, programming things I really shouldn't be…" _

I stayed silent, puzzled now.

"_Ok, we'll keep going. I can see that they're there…I just can't see who they are. But their data is irregular, and keeps changing…rapidly. So it can't be a player. It has to be someone from the team." _

"_So I keep going towards the house…?" _I eyed the light in front of me with caution, now. More unsure of the situation than before.

"_Yup. I'm going to throw some data recording codes into your I-HD, ok?"  
"My what?"  
"Your in-hand data. It's what we call the data-make up of individual characters. It's like…your character's personal operating system…it runs all of your items, records chat logs and in-game activities, and also compiles and compresses coding. For instance, the cloaking code I put on you? That coding was added to your I-HD." _

"…_Ok…" _

"_Haha, never mind, Roxy. Just get your butt over there, I'll do the rest"_

Still exceedingly confused, I headed to my right, jumping clumsily over the moving rocks, and landing with an ungraceful roll onto the damp grass surrounding the teapot house.

Approaching with as much caution as one would if they were approaching a man-eating lion, I tip-toed my way carefully towards a bright stream of light emitting from one of the cracks in the wall.

"Keep trying!"

I didn't need any kind of fancy coding to figure out who that voice belonged to. The venomous hiss of it's tone was enough to send chills down my spine.

A weak and muffled groan escaped through the walls shortly after, and I hurriedly pressed my face closer to the gap.

I had to cover my mouth in order to prevent myself from gasping; had to lock my legs in place to stop myself from running in there and doing something regrettable. I held myself steady against the wall, as my eyes fixed upon the painful scene in front of me.

Namine had perched herself on top of a tall pile of books, her legs crossed, her eyes glued on the writhing body below her.

I watched as silver hair was tangled and torn, limbs twitching and torso lurching at random intervals as though shockwaves were being fed straight to the nerves. Riku's face was covered in sweat, his eyes were tinged red around the edges and his expression obviously pleaded for liberation.

"It's almost done now. Stay conscious!"

Namine screeched, her voice almost sounding desperate. Riku's body gave another seemingly involuntary jerk, before he rolled onto his side and retracted his limbs closer to his body. His breathing became heavier as the seconds ticked by, and it became exceedingly harder for me to remain still.

Seconds later, a sputter of dark colour began to burn it's way into the air, expanding in size and layers, right next to Riku's clenched hands.

"That's it…just a little further…"

The dark void continued to grow, like a burn mark on cloth, until it was roughly the width and height of a small child.

I could vaguely feel a tingling sensation sweeping over me, and a light buzzing in my ears.

"_Roxas? Roxas are you still there?" _

I didn't dare reply. My lips wouldn't even move.

"_They're running some kind of unstable coding in there…I have no idea what it is, but I don't want you around it. It's hardware-related coding. That's the stuff that tells your bodysuit what to do, in order to give you sensations of touch in-game. I'm going to log you out, and back in, inside Traverse Town, ok? Standby."_

I barely registered what Axel was saying, I was too caught up in my own thoughts. I wanted to run in there, throw some fire at Namine, and drag Riku the hell out. I nearly did, but I could feel the world slipping away from around me, as a bright white light was pulled across my vision, followed by thick block letters reading: _Logging out…_

It wasn't long before I found myself back on my feet, in the centre of the restaurant in Traverse Town, right beside a table where my red-haired friend was seated.

"Sorry about that. Take a seat"

I obediently took a seat opposite Flare, still shell-shocked.

"So what did you see?" Flare was looking at me with laid-back interest, and I couldn't help but feel a little put off.

"Uh…Riku and…Namine were there…"  
"Namine? Maybe the area was being fixed…that's why…"  
"Riku looked like he was in pain" I added, almost impatiently.

"What? How do you mean?" Flare cocked her head to the side, looking more intrigued now.

"He was writhing, on the ground…and there was some kind of…black hole…opening up near him…"  
"What the hell? Was it like a huge glowing, black vortex thing?"  
I nodded.

"No one's opened one of those up for ages…that shouldn't even be happening…"

I blinked a few times in Flare's direction, not at all catching what he was talking about.

"Ok. I'm going to call some people in. I need you to meet me back here, tomorrow, no later than 5pm. Got it?"

"O-ok…"

"Good. Seeya then, Roxas"

Before I could respond, Axel's avatar was gone, and I was left there to dwell on my own thoughts.

* * *

It was around 10pm when I heard heavy footsteps approach the staircase. Sighing, I stood, readying myself for the weekly routine of putting my dad to bed on the couch. However, as I approached my door, the sound of a faster, lighter pair of feet came creaking down the hall, and to the head of the stairs.  
"You're late again," I heard my mother's irritated voice shoot down the stairs like knives, to which my drunken father could only apologize.

"How long are you going to keep this up for?" it was not the usual forgiving, peaceful tone that my mother spoke with. Her words were cold and blunt this time, and I stepped back a little from my door, still safely concealed behind it.

"Awh, honey, I just went out for a little social drinking. No big deal" my father's words were slurred and unevenly spaced when spoken. My stomach began to churn as I heard my mother's footsteps descend the stairs.

This had been a long time coming, but I guess part of me just wished it never would.

The heavier of the two pairs of feet, my father's, stumbled backwards as the lighter pair touched the floor below the bottom step, and there was only a slight pause before a loud clap sounded, followed by indecipherable yelling and screaming.

I lowered myself quietly to my knees beside my doorframe, listening. The yelling continued unaccompanied by any other noise for quite some time, until the smashing of glass erupted into the air to join it.

Sighing, I pushed myself back up onto my feet and grabbed my school bag, into which I jammed a pair of clothes and some books. I mentally flipped through my address book. Hayner would be asleep, Pence would be asleep, Olette would be asleep…Sora…was usually online leveling until all early hours of the morning, wasn't he?

I flipped my phone open and tapped in his number, pressing it to my ear and waiting. It only rang four times before someone answered.

"Hello? Roxas?"

"Hey, Sora. Sorry to call so late.."  
"Hey, no worries. What's up?"  
"Uhm…can I ask a favour?" I bit my bottom lip as the thought finally started to sink in. I didn't want to cause Sora any trouble.

"Sure thing. What is it?"

"…Would you mind if I came over…now?" I bit my lip even harder as the short silence chipped away at my conscience.

"Yeah, that should be ok. Are you alright to get here? Do you know where I live?"

"I don't think so…no"

After I'd received directions and said thank you a few more times, I rushed to my cupboard to retrieve my skateboard. I then proceeded out of my room and into the hall. From the sound of it, the fight had moved to the back yard, so I was safe to sprint to the front door and get a running start down the street before throwing my board down and kicking off in the direction I'd been given.

I would like to say I was unaffected by the entire thing; that I'm a big boy now, and family conflict just didn't bother me. And I tried to tell myself that as I shot down the dark street toward Sora's.

* * *

And theeere we have it. Another one down, and so many more to go~ Let's all hope that the next chapter arrives faster than this one xD Hope ye all have been well, and enjoyed reading this chapter :D until next time! *waves*

The numbers '172' can be found on the back of the U.S. $5 dollar bill in the bushes at the base of the Lincoln Memorial.


	8. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the characters, etc.

So, after...5 years? I've popped another chapter up. Thought I'd get back into writing whilst I'm unemployed and bored out of my mind. You'll probably see horrifying changes in my writing style, as I'm very rusty. But hopefully it does not detract from the story too much.  
Hopefully sometime soon I'll be writing books again, so I figured fanfiction was a good place to brush up on my writing, and this story had an interesting plot! If I do say so myself xD

Hope you all enjoy it just as much as you did 5 years ago! Teehee.

* * *

**Chapter Seven**

_Itch_

_I would like to say I was unaffected by the entire thing; that I'm a big boy now, and family conflict just didn't bother me. And I tried to tell myself that as I shot down the dark street toward Sora's._

Sora was at the front door when I arrived, and he stood as I walked up the driveway.

"Hey" I gave a small wave as I approached, and Sora returned it with a smile,"Good evening. Looks like I'm not the only night owl in this sleepy little town, then?"

The inside of Sora's house was tidy, and amazingly comfortable. The lights were a cozy dim glow, and the furniture consisted of mainly white and pale blue cloths and surfaces. The atmosphere made me feel instantly at home.

"There's a spare room upstairs. Follow me" I nodded and followed Sora up the stairs and almost directly to the right. The room was quaint, clean, and sported a queen-sized bed.

"Um, would you mind if I took a shower?"

"Not at all" the brunette replied cheerily.

Before I could place my things down, I was ushered across the hall and towards the linen closet, from which Sora plucked a towel and handed it to me.

"If you need anything else, I'm just in the bedroom directly across from the bathroom" Sora smiled pleasantly, and I nodded in reply,

"Thanks."

"No worries. I'm just going to head back to my room, I'm helping some people level! And I've been AFK for almost 15 minutes now!" Sora feigned distress before grinning and dashing off down the hall.

The bathroom smelled like a whole variety of cleaning products all combined into one, with enough aroma to make me feel slightly light-headed. But the water was warm and soothing, and I soon found the hazy feeling to be more of a comfort than a hindrance. As I swiveled the taps off and reached for my towel, my ears set focus on the noises outside of the room.

I could hear talking coming from across the hall, and became briefly curious of the topic before remembering that Sora was probably playing Twilight Town. I dried and dressed myself, rubbing the towel over my head as I stepped out the door. For a moment I stood there in the doorframe, absentmindedly toweling my hair dry, my head completely vacant of all thought, before the sound of a particular voice caught my attention.

"Sorry…I just…and…something I can't…" the volume of the conversation made it hard to make out all the words, and my selfish curiosity led me to step closer to Sora's door. I could have sworn that voice belonged to…

"I wasn't supposed to…and he still doesn't know I'm here…but please, can I stay here tonight?"

…_Riku_…

"Of course. And stop apologizing. I don't mind at all"

"Thank you…"

I stepped away from the door a little, suddenly aware of my eavesdropping. I was torn between courtesy and curiosity as I stood indecisively by the doorknob, keeping perfectly silent and still. But I couldn't will myself into moving. I wanted to know what was wrong. I wanted to know if I could help.

"What happened, Riku? What's wrong?" Sora's voice had never sounded so serious in all the time I'd known him. Which I will admit was not long, but he didn't seem at all like the serious type. There was a long pause, in which I stood in anticipation and impatience, waiting for the explanation.

"I just…needed to get out…that's all…nothing's really wrong." Riku's voice sounded strained, and the words were hollow, an obvious lie that his friend saw through instantly.

"Riku, we've been friends since we weren't even old enough to talk…you don't have to pretend to be strong around me…I don't care if it's just because you grazed your knee or something...if anything's wrong, I want you to tell me"

There was another long pause, and my anticipation grew to a near unbearable level.

I was near ready to burst through the door when the sound of quiet sobbing reached out through the wood, effectively stunning my mind into silence. They were muffled, and I could only imagine it was because Riku was trying his best to hide them. I stood, frozen outside the door.

"Sorry…"

"Stop apologizing, Riku. What happened?"

"It's just…" the words seemed to be getting caught in his throat, and he took a moment to compose himself before attempting to continue.

"Sora, I have no idea what's happening. I keep waking up with all of these burns and cuts all over me, and I don't know how they're getting there. I can't remember…anything! Nothing. Nothing but you, my father, and…"

I felt an agonizing pang in my stomach; a desperate urge to comfort him.

I leaned closer to the door as yet _another_ silence fell between the conversation.

"I feel like I'm missing something…Like I'm forgetting something important. That something is happening to me, and I'm completely unaware of it…but it hurts…my whole body…aches." Riku's voice grew husky again as he fought with his pride to simply let himself cry.

"Ugh…" there was a shuffling on carpet as I heard someone stand up, "sorry, I know that all sounds stupid. I'm probably just tired… "

"No, it doesn't sound stupid…Riku…who else do you remember?"

"What?…I remember you…dad…and…Roxas…but-"

"When did this start happening?" Sora's voice stayed the same, serious tone, which only made my stomach churn twice as much.

"I have no idea…" Riku sounded flat now; completely drained, "I think I've said too much. I'm really sorry…I don't usually…do that,"

"I don't mind," Sora's tone softened now, "but if you'd prefer, we can talk in the morning?"

"Yeah...I'll see you in the morning. Night"

"Good night. If you need anything, you know where I am."

It only registered to me that I was standing outside the door, just as it opened. The blood drained from my features as my vision fell upon Riku's face, his oceanic eyes were edged with red, and his skin was drained of most of it's colour. His countenance nearly instantly changed to match mine as the shock settled into both of us.

"Roxas…" The boy's head lowered, his silver hair curtaining his face, "Did you…overhear anything?" he steadily closed the door as he spoke, obviously intending to keep the conversation out of Sora's earshot.

I remained frozen, trying my hardest not to let the thoughts in my head display themselves on my face.

"Heard what?" I lied, forcing my mouth to form a small 'o' of confusion.

"…Nothing. Are you staying here tonight, also?"

"Yes," I smiled now, holding up my backpack, "I can take the couch, if you'd like?" I remembered the one spare room, with only one double bed. Riku was Sora's best friend, after all, and he sounded like he could use some time alone.

"No, that's alright…so long as you don't snore" a small smile washed over the teen's face now, sending cool relief swirling through my chest.

"No, I don't think I do" I chuckled, slinging my bag over one shoulder and heading in the direction of the spare room.

The light in the room was much the same as every other light in the house; dim, and bathed the room in a soft yellow colour. Placing my bag down by my side of the bed, I pulled my cell phone from the front pocket, setting an alarm for school the next morning. History class was going to be a complete fail. I'd barely even seen the first two pages, and the only word I remembered that was relative to the text, was sarcophagus! I shuddered at the thought.

"Something wrong?"

I jumped a little when Riku's voice muttered so close to my ear. For a split second I nearly registered it as the Whisper System. But when a concerned face poked it's way around my shoulder I jumped again.

"Oh, nothing," I laughed tensely, "just thinking about exams tomorrow."

"Ahh, I see. What subject?"

"History. Ancient Egypt…something about a king…"

Riku gave a small grin at my attitude, reclining back on his side of the bed. The strange tingling sensation I was feeling in my stomach didn't even register until I'd placed my phone back down and began removing my shirt. The strange tingling feeling you get when you think someone is watching you. I tried to act nonchalant as I slid my feet under the blankets, pulling them right up over my chest. I didn't even look in Riku's direction as I fidgeted with the doona; trying to pull part of its innards back into the corner of its cover. By the time I did manage a glance at him, his eyes were elsewhere, staring vacantly off at the lamp on the other side of the room. My brows furrowed slightly as I mentally kicked myself for being so paranoid, or rather, so _vain_.

I let out a quiet sigh. Here I was, hours off flunking an important piece of assessment…and all I could think about was Riku. Stupid…Stupid!

"You…were standing outside the door that whole time weren't you?"

My blood froze over as these gentle words hit me like ice. My eyes slowly unstuck themselves from the adjacent wall to look over at corresponding blue orbs, and my lips locked tight.

"It's ok," said orbs softened before disappearing behind a curtain of Riku's silvery hair, "I…don't really mind. What's said is said, and what's heard, is heard…but please, I'd rather you not mention it to anyone."

"O-of course…" my face was now a magnificently, embarrassing shade of red, I was sure of it. I could feel the heat of guilt bubbling under my skin, and near steaming out my ears.

"I'm sorry…" I hung my head now, feeling a right moron for having ever eavesdropped on such a private conversation.

Riku only smiled; a tired smile, that made my heart sink even lower. It was probably swimming around my lower intestines by this point.

With a pained movement, the long grey sweater that had before concealed all of Riku's upper body -bar his neck-, was removed. The new addition of a pair of gloves, was also removed from the teen's hands.

I gaped. Not in glee, not in shock, but in horror. Water began to rim my eyes as I looked over the boy's body. Nearly every inch of it was covered in scorch marks and cuts; bruises outlining most. The teen opposite me simply sat there, watching my eyes; watching my expression.

After the initial fright had subsided, I began to realise certain marks.

My eyes traced small circles on his shoulder blades, and long series of lined patterns tracing down either side of his spine. His uncovered hands were singed and blistering.

When I opened my mouth, the only noise that came out was a kind of stuttering of a vowel.

"This is what I was talking about…more and more have been appearing every day, and I have no recollection of how I got them," Riku lifted his hands in front of his face, examining his palms, "I havn't been able to sit any exams because of these, either."

I could not believe the connections my brain was sketching. The circular shapes, the patterns, the scorch marks on his hands.

"Twilight Town…" the words escaped before I had a chance to catch them.

His eyes connected with mine in a horrified stare and I held it as bewilderment almost tangibly bounced between us.

Flashes of recollection began to flare in my vision. Riku's writhing form; agonized expression; contorted hands.

_It's just a game. It's just a game_.

The phrase was becoming less and less believable. If I'd had time, I would have paused to worry for my sanity. I tentatively extended a hand towards his chest where an oval burn was etched into the skin. Riku gritted his teeth slightly as my fingers lightly swept over the mark,

"I asked you once before if I'd seen you online in a game called 'Twilight Town'- you were at the mall with Sora…the body suit used for that game has wire circuits running through it, shaped almost exactly like your burns. I…" I paused. Maybe the hardware really was faulty? Perhaps it was messing with his head…?

Riku's husky voice interrupted my thoughts, "I know _what_ Twilight Town is, everyone's talking about it. Sora keeps telling me about things we've been doing online, but I just don't remember."

"So you don't know who Namine is…?" I glanced down at the blankets now, not knowing where my boundaries in this conversation stood.

"No…should I?" he sounded genuinely concerned if not a little frustrated.

"I suppose not…" I looked back up at him and the disturbing contusions all over his skin, and felt myself overwhelmed with sorrow. His eyes were half-lidded with exhaustion, and I could only imagine what he must have gone through.

"Riku…" I suddenly became painfully aware of how close the teen was to me, his knees almost touching mine as we sat cross-legged in front of each other. The hell is this burning sensation in my _face?!_

I had wanted to say '_I'm sorry'_ but I was cut off by the _thwump _of a head on my shoulder and silver hair cascading down my bare chest.

The air was stinging my eyes before I realized I had not blinked for almost a minute; my shoulder was damp before I realized what was happening.

Riku's back seemed to heave with silent sobs as his scarred hands slowly and shyly clasped around my ankles. Every move seemed to cause him pain, but he continued to twist the material of my pants around in his fingers. I clenched my eyes closed in an attempt to block the waves of empathy that threatened to disturb my countenance. I subconsciously reached my hands up and around him,

"-Sorry!" I whispered as I felt the body under my arms wince. I quickly withdrew them.

"Don't." though it caused him to hiss lightly in pain, Riku wrapped his own arms loosely around my waist, resting his forearms on my hipbones. I reciprocated the gesture, returning my arms to their previous position, still feeling pangs of guilt as he winced.

"You should go to the hospital," I muttered, "or at least let me disinfect some of these, they look terrible."

"Hospital staff generally want explanations. And I don't want father to—" a fleeting, confusing pause, "I don't want to cause any trouble. If you want, you can do whatever you like." I ignored the tightening of his grip around my waist, passing it off as muscle spasms or my imagination. Gently prying his arms from me, I scampered off to the bathroom cabinet, where I had been instructed I would find all of the first aid supplies.

Riku was lying on his stomach when I returned. I sat myself down beside him on the bed, uncapping some of the ointment and beginning the careful task of applying it with minimal pain.

By the time I was finished, Riku's whole body was glistening slightly from the oil and I sat back to examine my work,

"Looks like I got all of the bad ones" I commented, dabbing some extra on a particularly painful looking burn over his ribs.

"Thank you" Riku husked with a small smile. I returned the expression as I pulled the blankets back and folded myself under them. Riku slowly followed suit.

We lay there for quite some time in silence. I could not deny the strange burning sensation in my cheeks. I could not pass it off as the summer heat, or a fever. I could not disguise the bright red tinge in my cheeks as eczema or discoloration…So it was really quite hard to find an excuse when Riku turned his head and asked if I was ok. He raised an eyebrow when I said I was probably just getting a head cold.

With a small smirk he edged closer, placing a hand on my forehead, moving it under my chin and then onto my neck. He then proceeded to pat around my chest and rib area, comparing the temperature.

"You're really burning up" he remarked, eyes wide.

"Haha…it's nothing" I almost squeaked, Riku's hand still resting on my chest.

He withdrew slightly before painstakingly lying himself down on his side. I kept my eyes glued to the ceiling out of desperation, wildly thrashing around my mind for a reason as to why my stomach was knotting so intensely. This really was not fair. _Try to think of boobs, you blonde idiot. _Nothing. _Ok, hows about that porn star, Yufie?_ Still nothing!? This was not good. As soon as Riku's hands were on me, my body became an inferno, but NOT when picturing the world's most sort-after woman? I suppose the comparison was flawed…maybe I should go and hit on a girl…or something…Not that I had a problem with..._ugh_

I was not sure how long I'd trapped myself in my head for, but by the time I looked back over at the silver haired teen, he was fast asleep, his head rested on his left arm that stretched up toward the bedhead, the other folded at his front. I sighed. Though his stillness saved me a lot of inner torment, I couldn't help the bubbles of disappointment from rising in my stomach.

I awoke the next morning to my phone chiming out my alarm tone. Unwillingly I pulled myself into a sitting position before silencing it. It was only after doing this did I realise the other person still fast asleep beside me. He was lying flat on his back, with his arms straight by his sides. It looked exceedingly uncomfortable to me, but the boy seemed to be quite at ease. I let a small smile slip my lips before quickly launching myself off the bed and onto the floor…quietly.

Before too long I was out the door, on my board, and heading in the direction of my pending doom. At least, after today, it would be over and done with.

As the supervising teacher allocated us all desks and test papers, I mentally revised everything I had studied.

_Uhm…sarcophagus…pharaoh…crap…_

"You may now begin!" came the teacher's cheery voice from the head of the class, and pens hit paper.

It was only 1:30pm by the time the exam finished, and I tried not to slouch as I walked to the front to hand my papers in. That was a complete fail of a test, and I knew it.

Stupid, obnoxious me, had to keep imagining half-naked Riku…minus the burns and scars, for most of the duration of the test. And worse yet, stupid, obnoxious me, had to LIKE those imaginings.

_Just find a girl in Twilight Town and hit on her, maybe…less…horrifying that way. _

My feet refused to lift very far from the pavement as I plodded home, images of a very angry father filling my thoughts. _So, dad, _I would pipe, _I am head over heels in love with a __**guy **__from school!_ Ahahahah…I was dead. So, _so_ dead. My father was an easy man to figure out. He loved football, women and alcohol. That stereotype left very little room for acceptance, understanding and modern ideas. So, naturally, the idea of liking anything other than breasts terrified me.

My bag was thrown callously onto my bed as I neglected the idea of study in favour of strapping Twilight Town's hardware onto myself. My…_feelings_ toward Riku were a rabid mixture of concern, fascination, infatuation and something else…something like an _itch._

By the time 5pm rolled around, I had been standing out the front of the café in Traverse Town for a good half hour, trying to make conversation with women. I had successfully gotten myself 6 friend invitations from the current flock of females surrounding me, all of which were asking about my real life; what I looked like, where I lived, what I did with myself when I was not leveling. I found the attention a little staggering, so when I caught a glimpse of bright red hair striding toward me I couldn't help but feel relieved.

"Yo, kid, sorry to interrupt your courting circle, but we need to get down to business" with a flick of her wrist she poked a thumb toward a table of authoritative looking people all dressed in black robes. I gulped down whatever words I had originally prepared in response, and settled for nodding and following. We seated ourselves next to each other at the table, and all heads turned toward us. Flare looked nonchalant about the whole situation, whereas I looked like I was about to lose control of my neck muscles.

A man sporting an eye patch was the first to speak, and he placed a hand on the table to hoist himself to his feet,

"My name is Xigbar, with me are Zexion, Larxene and Luxord". Each nodded their head as their name was spoken. I wasn't sure if these were character names or not, but I kept my lips sealed.

"Don't forget us!" I swiveled my head toward the boisterous sounding voice to see Geyser and a pink haired man sauntering over.

"You're late," the man introduced as Luxord glared at the approaching party and held his gaze until they were seated.

"This is Demyx and Marluxia…" Xigbar huffed.

So these were their real names…? Demyx, huh? Geyser seemed to suit him much better, in my head.

"Let's not waste any time. Roxas, yesterday whilst undertaking…" he shifted his vision to Axel with a small frown, "certain illegal tasks, you collected data on the undertaking of even MORE illegal tasks. Axel, honestly," the man huffed a sigh, "when will you just learn to stop messing around with your privileges?"

The red head grinned sheepishly,

"I got you some interesting data, didn't I? Let's focus on that."

Xigbar rolled his eyes before continuing, "Although we've analyzed the data thoroughly, we are still not entirely sure what was going on. From the looks of it, a lot of unstable coding was being force-fed into a player's I-HD,"

_That's an understatement…_

"It also seems that they were trying to open gateways to unstable, unfinished worlds that are still under maintenance."

Larxene snorted,

"You mean dark portals? They are impossible. Even an elite hacker wouldn't be able to-"

"Actually," Axel interjected, "hackers have been running in and out of 'dark portals' for a few months now, which leads me to believe that what we encountered yesterday has been happening for a while now"

Xigbar sat back down now, crossing his arms over his chest,

"I'm not going to ask HOW you know the movement on these hackers, and yet have FAILED to report them, Axel. But if you're correct, we're going to have a lot on our plates for the next few weeks."

The group was silent. Even the forever jovial Geyser was looking solemn.

I could not help but stress over the comment _what we encountered yesterday has been happening for a while now_…did that mean Riku had been going through torture for months!?

"I need to know-" I blurted, hesitating as eyes looked up at me from under hoods, "I need to know more about Namine, the program"

There was a moment of shifting eyes before Xigbar finally answered me,

"Namine is a maintenance program, designed by our boss to correct and compile coding. It saves a lot of manual labour."

"What I saw yesterday…was someone being tortured. He was writhing on the ground while Namine watched and coaxed him on, telling him not to pass out. These…'dark portals' you're talking about, I think that's what I saw. It was like a dark burn mark opening up in thin air." I was working the material of my robes around my index finger out of embarrassment. But I had to know. I needed information, and if these people had anything to do with the development of this game, they were the people to ask. Thinking about it, I felt a little awe-struck, sitting in front of some of the main developers of a world that seemed to me now like a second reality. They had written up the coding to make the environment work…they must be incredibly talented.

Demyx looked slightly ill at hearing this information, while everyone else just looked bureaucratic.

"Are you absolutely sure this is what you witnessed?" Xigbar's gaze was piercing, but I held my head firmly in place, staring directly back at him,

"Yes." I replied, certainty stretched across my features.

Xigbar nodded,

"Very well. Do you know the person who was accompanying Namine that day?"

"I do." My responses were stiff and my stance rigid, "his name is Riku. Username is Darkness."

Axel and Demyx's heads snapped around to look at me at the mention of his name. Demyx's mouth even gaped a little.

"You mean 'mister tear up towns because I'm bored', Darkness?" Demyx asked, exasperated.

"Uh…yeah, that one" I scratched the back of my head in discomfort.

More long silences…

"Larxene, take care of gathering the others, we will meet in the conference room tomorrow, first thing in the morning. Axel, Demyx, you stay with Destiny and add tracking data to his I-HD. It is your job to hunt down Darkness and monitor him as closely as possible. If Namine has been using cloaking devices, that needs to be looked into. Until we're able to locate them using out system, we're going to have to do this manually."

"Yessir" Axel saluted and stood, dragging Demyx up with him. I hastily got to my feet after them. The others weren't too far behind and we all forwarded out onto the street. Without so much as a goodbye, the team of elusive mods vanished, leaving me with the blonde and the red-head. Axel chuckled to himself,

"Those guys are ridiculous. Always so…sullen…Ok, kid!" he turned his attention to me now, "This Darkness fellow, does he have friends?"

"Calibur is his closest friend. His real name is Sora…we all go to the same school."

"Well! That makes things alot easier. Did you ask Riku about it?"

"I did…but…he couldn't remember. I asked him about Namine and his online character, but he keeps saying he can't remember. Not to mention the burn marks…is Twilight Town's hardware faulty?"

"Burns? Faulty? No, not that I know of. Mind you, that's not my field. I can check our systems for reports on faults, but outside of that, you'll need to talk to the upper circle of moderators. What were you saying about burns?"

"I…caught up with Riku last night and he was covered in burns and bruises…and they were all circular and linear. And they all looked like the circuits in the body suits…"

Axel cocked his head to the side in confusion,

"Truly? That…yeah, I'll look into that for you. I'll message you if I find anything. You should get some rest, kid. If you've got time tomorrow morning, I'll come pick you up and we can get started on tracking this character down. I'd feel safer if you were supervised while we did this. The coding they were running when I pulled you out the other day…it could have probably vegetated someone. Keep that on the down-low…still just a theory. Better safe than sorry."

"Uh…yeah, sure. I should be up by seven tomorrow" I replied.

"Alright, I'll see you then. Take care, Rox…don't stress too much" Flare's feminine hand felt a little strange as it ruffled my hair as I still expected it to be the masculine hands of Axel.

_Flare has logged out._

Demyx, who had remained quiet the whole time, gave me a vague smile before waving and logging out. He must have been a little too disturbed by the information...

_Geyser has logged out. _

I took a deep breath to gather myself before finally hitting the log off button, detaching myself from the game and plopping myself down on my bed. My thoughts were again with Riku, mentally tracing the scars that covered his body.

_God I hope he's ok…_

* * *

I know, I know, it wasn't worth the 5 year wait! xD But I'm already 3/4 of my way through chapter 8, so maybe that'll make up for it ^_^

Don't forget to review! I need feedback now more than ever! Any help with my writing style, or if you catch spelling errors or sentences that just don't sit right. Let me know. Thank you for reading, and I hope you all have a fantastic day! (Who is excited for Kingdom Hearts 3 on the PS4!? I know I am!)


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